The Altomare Ace
by Primordial Soul
Summary: He had been betrayed, forsaken by the ones he called friends. Now, as the fourth year passes, the Pokemon League will enter a crucible, a trial by fire, against the forsaken one, the Altomare Ace. AltoShipping.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **Happy Fourth of July! This is Primordial Soul with the first chapter of _The Altomare Ace_.

I was recently reading some Ash betrayed stories and really enjoyed them. Therefore, I've decided to attempt my own one. Because of my focus on _Blessed By Victory _in addition to the upcoming sporadic story, _By Blood and By Aura, _this story will also be sporadically updated and will have no set update schedule. I'll post a new chapter when I feel like writing one.

This story will not include anything from Unova. This will be AltoShipping.

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

"Talk"- normal speechless

"_Talk"_- telepathy

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT APPEARS IN THIS STORY!

Deep within the island city of Altomare, there is a secret garden, home to the Soul Dew, an artifact of unimaginable power. It was home to the Eon Twins, who guarded the Soul Dew with their lives if necessary. For centuries, the Eon Pokemon lived alone, isolated from the world around them. That was no longer the case.

A young man sat crouched in the moonlight next to the Soul Dew, eyes closed. He had raven-colored spiky hair that covered the top of his head. He wore a black undershirt with a opened white jacket with three dark red triangles similar to those found on an Eon Dragon; one on each sleeve and one on the very front of the jacket. He wore dark blue jeans and extruded an aura of confidence and control. His name, formerly Ash Ketchum, was Ashura Knight.

Several other pokemon surrounded him, training heavily underneath his watch. They had been going for hours, yet they would not stop. They were the Ace's pokemon, and they would everything they could to gain his satisfaction.

Ashura opened his eyes, dark red in color, and stood up, drawing everyone's attention to him. With a imperceptible nod, he said, "Good work, everyone. We went longer than normal. Time for a late dinner," With a cheer, his pokemon stopped what they were doing and walked across the garden where their master had already set up their food.

Ashura smiled as he watched his pokemon began to eat. He was so proud of them, the pokemon in front of him had worked so hard and stuck by him all these years every since **that **fateful day. He began walking toward his pokemon, intent on eating as well.

As he walked, one of his pokemon, a Rotom, floated besides him. After a couple moments of silence, the Rotom spoke up, _"You forgot ketchup,"_

The man laughed at the pokemon's words and replied, "Oh, partner. I wondered if you would catch that. It seems time hasn't dulled you one bit."

The Rotom snorted and replied, _"Neither has death_" Rotom's words made both of them quiet, once again reminding them of **that **day.

Ashura slowly began to speak, "You know I'm still so sorry over what happened. If Arceus hadn't intervened, you would of died." the man visibly hesitated, bring back more memories, "I never meant for what was done to you,"

The Rotom extended a tendril of electricity and used it to pat the man's arms, _"And you know that I'll never hold it against you. It was not your fault; it was Team Rocket's. I may look different now, I may not be fully alive, but I'll always be the lovable little mouse you met the first day of your journey,"_

Ashura laughed, bringing him out of his slump. "Indeed you will," He got out a bottle of ketchup and handed it to the Rotom, "Don't eat all of it," Rotom nodded as he floated back to the group of pokemon still eating.

Ashura, smiling from the recent conversation, smiled even wider as he heard the rush of wind caused by only one being. He turned to see a red and white blur knock into him, bringing him to the ground. Ashura laughed as Latias nuzzled his neck, extremely happy to see him after her short voyage.

"Easy girl, I just finished training here," he replied as he slowly got up.

_"I'm sorry, Ash, I'm just so happy to see you again!" _Latias replied, still clinging to Ashura's form.

Ashura leaned and whispered, "As am I," Latias blushed as he spoke; with three words he could be incredibly seductive.

Latias began to float to where the other pokemon are, with Ashura following her.

_"So, Ash, what have I missed for the week I've been gone?"_

Ashura shrugged and replied, "Not much really. We haven't had much true battling since I became the Altomare Ace and the Prince of Champions after completing the Prodigy Challenge and the Royal Line. We did participate in a small tournament on the south side of Orre, but we crushed that easily. It was to mainly keep our skills sharp. We've mainly focused on improving the city, creating our arena, and enhancing our public image,"

Latias nodded as her mind moved back to those days. Ashura, after a month of living in Altomare trying to recover from **that **day, learned of several tournaments that existed outside the five main regions that were on a whole other level than the Pokemon League. Ashura had immediately thrown himself into those tournaments, training incredibly hard and acquiring powerful pokemon. After two years of work, Ash had triumphed over all of these, including the prestigious Prodigy Challenge and the Royal Line.

The Prodigy Challenge was a tournament, based out of the metropolis Forever City, that determined the best of the best. Forget the Master Tournaments that the Pokemon League flaunted so very much; true trainers fought and bled in the Prodigy Challenge. It started with 256 trainers, that were slowly whittled down to 32 via a series of three on three preliminaries. Then after a round of double battles that brought the number down to 16, the third round was full six on six battles all the way to the end. It was a nightmare, one that truly tested the trainers endurance, power, cunning, speed, and connection with their pokemon.

If you win the Prodigy Challenge, you were allowed to try the test simply known as the Royal Line. If you did not compete, you earned a large cash prize as well as public distinction, like a normal tournament. If you did compete, you had the chance to truly be the very best. In the test, you were pitted against all the previous winners of the Prodigy Challenge, who were considered to be the best trainers in the world. If you lost to just one trainer, you received a smaller cash prize for beating the Prodigy Challenge as well as the public distinction. If you beat all the trainers, you were given a much, much larger cash prize, the title of Prince of Champions, and the opportunity to make your own arena and title to become a part of the challenge.

One year ago, Ashura had entered the Prodigy Challenge. People scoffed at him, believe that a "League" boy like Ashura would not survive the first round.

Imagine their surprise when he won the whole thing. Imagine their shock when he then proceeded to take on the Royal Line. Imagine their hearts' stopping when he beat the final trainer in the Royal Line, making Ashura the new Prince of Champions. There hadn't been a new Prince in over fifty years

Latias sighed in happiness as she continued to reminisce. After winning the Royal Line, Ash had decided to become a part of the challenge. To her shock and happiness, he chose Altomare as the sight of his facility. When she confronted the soon to be crowned Altomare Ace, he had this to say,

_"Latias, I was a wreck after _**_that_**_ day. I could barely focus and I had lost my passion for battling. You, along with this city, are the reason I am in this position today. It's only fair that I give something back to the city that sponsored me,"_

Before Ashura's ascension, Altomare had declined severely. The Five Regions had cut off the small island city for some reason or another, making it a sole entity without any trade partners. Without help, the city would have been abandoned to its neglect.

Ashura changed all that. With the arrival of the newest member of the Royal Line, Artican Industries, the main sponsor and industrial power of the 'true' tournaments, began to pump money into the city. This money saved the city, and with Altomare now an essential part of the non-Five Region Economy, the citizens of Altomare had Ashura to thank for their survival. He was a hero, an icon to all that lived in Altomare. Latias had Ashura to thank for much more.

You see, while Ash had been dealing with the aftermath of **that **day, Latias had still been dealing with her brother's death. She still had nightmares of her brother crying out and dieing right in front of her, unable to do anything. She still wept during the day, wishing that her brother was still with her. Both were grieving, so they reached out to each other for comfort from their losses. After some time, that comfort turned into so much more.

Latias was brought out of her recollections when a Pidgeot came into the garden, carrying something. Everyone watched curiously as the bird delivered a letter to Ashura, who took it with some degree of caution. He had instructed Pidgeot to only bring mail to the secret garden only if it was important and time-sensitive. He slowly opened it up and began to read aloud,

_ Dear Mister Knight,_

_ You are herby invited to attend the Top 128 Competition this coming March 1st in the Ever Grande Stadium in the Hoenn Region. 128 Trainers will gather from all around the world to compete. Registrations will be made in the closest convenient town no later by Feburary 15th, which is in three weeks time. Simply show this letter to the registration and you will be all set to compete. _

_Please arrive to Ever Grande City by Feburary 29th for the opening Ceremony._

_ Thank you,_

_ Mr. Charles Goodshow_

_ Owner of the Pokemon League_

In addition to the letter, there was an additional hand written message.

_ Dear Ashura Knight/Ash Ketchum,_

_ Congrats on the disappearing act. Took me four bloody years to find you, and that was by using circumstantial evidence and paper thin trails. _

_ I know that you are not a fan of the League, hell I wouldn't after what they put you through. However, I need your help, and yes, your help does deal with the invitation. You're the only one who could even consider doing what needs to be done. It's too important to discuss via letters; this needs to be spoken about face to face._

_ I plan on visiting Altomare in three days as part of my annual vacation. Once I'm there, I'll sneak off from the guards protecting me and head to a location of your choosing. All I want here is a confirmation that you'll speak to me and a location. Once we speak, you're entirely free to shove this entire situation in my face and laugh. I won't hold it against you._

_ Just one more time, no matter what you think, please at least speak to me._

_ See you soon,_

_ Scott_

_ Creator of the Battle Frontier_

After Ashura finished the letter, everyone in the garden was silent, analyzing what was written and what it meant for the future.

Ashura wasn't shocked that his identity had been found out. He wasn't shocked that he was being asked to come back. He wasn't even shocked of the absolute secrecy of the letter. He was shocked that Scott, a fun-loving lively man, had reduced himself to begging beneath Ashura's feet in order for Ashura to just listen to him. He was also shocked by how much Scott went out of the way to make everything conciliatory to Ashura. Hell, he didn't even have to leave town. The measures Scott had taken with this had convinced the young man, despite his hatred for the League, to at least hear the man out.

Ashura turned to his pokemon and said, "I think that we should at least listen to Scott given the measures he's taken. Besides, if we don't like it, he said we could back out without complaint. What do you guys say?"

Once Ash saw his pokemon agree with his opinion, he swiftly grabbed a pen and began to write a counter-response. After five minutes, Ash finished writing and read it over one time.

_Dear Scott,_

_ I daresay I am impressed that you managed to find me, even if it took you four years. I had expected no one to be able to figure it out unless I told them myself. _

_ In response to your message, I have decided to give you a chance to plead your case. Find me on the bridge that the Tour de Altomare starts at 8:00pm. I'll be disguised; my normal appearance is too well known to the citizens of Altomare._

_ See you soon,_

_ Ashura Knight_

_ Altomare Ace, Prince of Champions_

Ash folded the message and gave it to Pidgeot.

"Get this to Scott secretively. No one but him is to even see you" Pidgeot nodded and flew off.

Ashura turned and replied, "No training after dinner. You have the rest of the night off. Be prepared for tomorrow's training, starting at the usual time."

After speaking, he walked away, leaving his pokemon curious for what was to come. Latias got up and followed him through the garden.

She found him staring at the Soul Dew that was the last remnant of her brother. She walked up to him and, after turning into her new human form that she made after giving up Bianca's, snuggled up to him. Ash sighed as he held her.

"Ash, what do you think is going on?" she said, able to speak English in her human form after years of practice.

Ashura shook his head, "I don't know. But I intend to find out,"

Latias stared up at Ashura's dark red eyes, losing herself in their intensity. She could remember the day when his eyes, among many other things, changed.

"I'll always be there. We'll get through this together, like we always have," Latias said softly, causing Ashura's head to turn towards her.

He leaned in, his lips almost touching hers. After a second, he whispered, "I know" and kissed her.

The kiss was just as good, no even better, than the one's they had shared before. Ash's sweet, soft lips dominated her own. It sent fire running through her transformed veins, bringing a feeling of pure ecstasy. She could never get enough of him.

After several minutes, the two broke apart for air, and simply gazed at each other. Ash lightly tugged her arm as he said, "We should get some sleep. We're probably going to need it"

Latias was all to eager to comply.

**AN: **There is the first chapter of _The Altomare Ace_. I hope you enjoyed it.

You readers may be confused, a lot, but that's okay. I threw a lot of stuff at you that at this time may not make much sense to you. Ashura's backstory will be covered throughout the story, and everything will make sense eventually. I promise. Any questions you have please place in reviews. I'll answer whatever I can.

In this story, Ash and Latias are already in a relationship, for reasons already stated as well as currently unstated.

Next chapter, Ash will meet with Scott and determine what he needs. More backstory will also be revealed.

As I said before, I have no clue when the next update for this will be. _Blessed By Victory _is currently my priority, and I will only work on this if I am stuck on BBV and I don't feel like working on my second sporadic story, _By Blood and By Aura_.

Note: there will be some similarities between TAA and BBaBA, mainly names and some concepts, but most are used in completely different contexts

For Ash's appearance, go see this picture on deviant art and simple imagine the colors:

(main url) + ?order=9&q=champion+ash&offset=24#/d2spqks

That's all. See you next time!

Primordial Soul


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **Hey, it's Primordial Soul, and here's the second chapter of _The Altomare Ace_.

I'm extremely proud that my second story has received such attention. I really appreciate you guys for your support.

I've been hard at work on this chapter, my longest by 1500 words, for the past several hours. I plan on writing the eighth and ninth chapter of _Blessed By Victory _before writing chapter three of this.

I have gotten a lot of good ideas stirring in my head for the future of this story, and my muse has been working hard for my two stories on hand. Because of this and the fact I have a lot of stuff I'll have on my plate soon, I am hesitant on adding _By Blood and By Aura _to my work queue. So, as of right now, **_By Blood and By Aura _is on indefinite hold**. I'll get to it eventually, but I at least want to finish one of my stories before tackling a new one. The teaser will be moved to my profile if you still want to read it.

Now, story related news. Ashura and Scott meet in this chapter, they discuss some things, and Ashura makes a decision. Plus backstory.

Pikachu becoming a Rotom, well, I see that has caused a few heads to turn. The reason for this change is twofold. One, it's unique and one of the kind, which is my modus operandi. Two, it plays a role in the plot. It will be explained later in the story

I've had a lot of time on my hands, so you might expect me working on my stories frequently and modifying my update schedule to fit that. I just need to focus and actually start working...

**Kyuuo- **Wait and see!

'**Guest'- **Don't be so quick to judge. Appearances can be deceiving...

**Lightningblade49**- I'll reveal all of Ash's pokemon later, but suffice to say, not all of his original pokemon remain with Ash. I kinda explain it in this chapter.

**In cavern's dark- **Thank you for pointing out those small errors. They're fixed now.

Anyway, I think that's it. I hope you enjoy this chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

"Talk"- regular speech

"_Talk"- _Telepathy

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT APPEARS IN THIS STORY!

Ashura waited patiently in an alleyway, watching the bridge to see when Scott would arrive for their meeting. After Ashura had received the message, he had quickly prepared his pokemon for any type of trouble today. So, as Ashura stood waiting, he could see over a dozen pokemon in their positions, ready for anything. He saw Rotom, floating high above the sky. He saw Latias, in her human form, sitting close by, seemingly unaware, but in actuality entirely focused on protecting her mate.

_"You sure this is wise, Ash?" _Latias inquired.

_"Something is obviously wrong with Scott," _Ashura replied, glancing around at the crowd. He was so glad that this disguise worked; he did not want to attract attention. _"I need to figure out what is so bad that Scott resorts to these measures."_

_ "I understand, Ash. I'm just worrying. I can't afford to lose you." _Latias said, tears starting to form under her amber eyes.

_"I can't afford to be without you either. I'll be fine. I have you and some of my pokemon watching out for me." _Ashura replied.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ashura saw a flash of a familiar blue Hawaiian shirt. He turned his head to see the familiar sight of Scott walking slowly up onto the bridge, carrying a briefcase. He looked the same, but he looked... scared. He constantly looked over his shoulder, almost as if he was expecting to be followed. Ashura frowned at the sight. Something was definitely wrong if Scott was acting like this.

_"All right, I'm going in. Cover me" _Ashura said as he emerged from his hiding place.

_"Good luck" _Latias replied.

Ashura nodded as he approached the Battle Frontier creator. Time to get some answers.

* * *

Scott looked nervously around as he stood on the bridge, waiting for Ash to show up. He couldn't afford to be spotted by anyone from the Five Regions, it was too important that he and Ash talked alone, even if Ash didn't accept.

Scott knew that Ash didn't owe him anything, and that he may be left high and dry and this entire situation unresolved. Despite Ash's hated, Scott hoped that Ash would see how critical this situation was and agree to help.

"Excuse me, sir?" A voice brought Scott out of his recollections. He turned to see a Policeman walk up to him, visor down. Scott began to panic, he couldn't afford to be stopped before he talked with Ashura or while he still had the case on him.

"What is it?" Scott timidly asked.

The officer's menacing visor glared directly at him, increasing the intimidation factor that he possessed. "There's been some complications with your visa. Please come this way." The Police Officer turned and motioned for Scott to follow him into a nearby private alley.

By the time the two of them were alone, Scott was shaking. When the officer turned to look at Scott, he swallowed nervously, hoping this was nothing truly important.

To his surprise, the police officer sighed as asked, "Scott, what's going on? First your letter and now this?"

Scott's mouth hit the floor as he took it the officer's words. "Ash?" He asked hesitantly.

The police officer lifted his visor, revealing his face. Although his eyes were now dark red, his hair slightly more tamed and his face much harder, it was obvious that this was the same man who Scott had followed.

"Ashura Knight, pleased to meet you again," Ashura said, shaking Scott's hand.

Scott sighed in relief and replied, "I'm so glad to see you again. You look well considering..." Scott trailed off, not sure on what to say. He shook his head and continued, "We need to talk,"

Ashura nodded and gestured Scott to sit down at a nearby private table. After both were settled in, Scott said, "Ashura, I need help, and you're the only one with the motivation and the power to help me. I've spent three years on this problem, and I just have enough evidence to show you"

Ashura leaned in, expression unreadable. "Explain,"

Scott grabbed his briefcase and opened it, revealing several stacks of paper. "To properly describe what's going on, I'll need to give a...history lesson so to speak. About what happened to you."

Ashura sighed and leaned back, obviously uncomfortable about talking about **that **day. "I assume that my past is a part of this."

Scott nodded. "It's what brought this situation to light."

Ashura, after a couple of moments, replied, "Go ahead. I said I'd hear you out in my response to you."

Scott flashed a small smile. "Thanks" He grabbed a sheet of paper and began to read.

"I first had my suspicions when I saw you compete in Sinnoh. After taking on Battle Frontier, I assumed you'd take the league there by storm. Instead, you had a lot of trouble, and kept losing to people half your own skill level. I wondered, why was that? I did a little looking around, but soon let go when you managed to enter the league,"

"The next thing was your fight with Tobias. He had never appeared before in any other official league, but comes into the Sinnoh league and utterly destroys you. I became curious about that man, but he vanished back into thin air when he won the Sinnoh league. I began running searches on him, but came up with nothing, at least then."

"Then, **that **day was what really started my... activities outside the Frontier." Scott paused, unsure on how to talk about it.

They didn't need to though. Scott had enough information to know what happened, and Ash saw it right in front of him.

_Flashback_

_Fifteen year old Ash Ketchum, along with his Pikachu, ran down the road, excited about his day. He had been home from Sinnoh for a couple days now, and had just spent the day at the pokemon lab training with his pokemon and hanging out with his friends. He was going to head home to see his mom, but she instead insisted on meeting him at her restaurant, which she had reopened when Ash left on his journey's._

_ Ash stumbled to the ground as Pikachu stopped suddenly, sniffing the air. After a couple of seconds, Pikachu's eyes widened in horror as he turned and pointed at the restaurant._

_ Ash turned and mouth fell open as he saw the Restaurant in ruins. Its windows were shattered, the foundation was in ruins, and more than few people lay dead next to the building._

_ Ash ran toward the ruin, eyes searching for one person. His eyes widened as he saw that __specific person, lying on the ground with a vacant look in her eyes._

_ "No, no, Mom. You can't be dead. YOU CAN'T BE DEAD!" Ash yelled as he cradled Delia Ketchum's body, with Pikachu crying right beside him. How could this happen? Why would someone do this? He thought. It just wasn't fair._

_ After a couple of minutes, he could see the sirens surround him as the police arrived. He could feel the cuffs sliding around his wrists. He could hear Officer Jenny speaking, "You're under arrest for the murder of over two dozen people plus the wanton destruction of this building."_

_End Flashback_

As the both of them remembered that day, Scott began to speak again. "Once you were arrested, I actively began searching for information. I knew that the kind, innocent little boy that challenged the Frontier would not have done such a thing. I was just starting that hunt as your trial took place as well as your escape."

Ash snorted, "Yeah, some escape. Hardly any of us made it out and Pikachu was severely injured."

Scott looked around, finally notice the lack of a yellow mouse, "Where is he, anyway?"

"Around, now where were you?" Ashura said sternly, not wanting to talk about what happened to the mouse even to Scott.

Scott smiled sheepishly and continued. "You were tried with twenty four counts of first degree murder and one count of destruction of property. During your trial, your lawyer believed you were guilty and merely tried to avoid the death penalty. Several character witness accused you of being sociopathic and attention seeking. They also described you as a naïve little kid who didn't understand the world and would do anything to further your goals."

Ashura's face hardened, "Yeah, my friends turned out to be real good ones."

_Flashback:_

_ Ash sat in the chair, surrounded by accusing glares as his trial progressed. Ash couldn't understand why he was here. He wasn't guilty! Why was he being accused?_

_ "And, now the honorable judge calls upon several character witness's that would further clarify how the accused acted in his day to day life."_

_ Ash turned and began to smile as he saw his friends walk in. Brock, Misty, May, Dawn, Professor Oak, he could see all but Max standing there. They would vouch for him! He was going to get out of this!_

_ "The prosecution would hereby like to ask, what kind of person was Ash Ketchum?"_

_ "Oh, he was the most terrible person ever!" Dawn yelled, shocking Ash._

_ "Yeah, I traveled with him for two years, and he's just an attention seeking brat!" Misty yelled._

_ Brock nodded, "Yeah, Ash always ran into things and sacrificed everything around him just to further his own goals. He never cared about the people around him, only himself."_

_ Ash continued to stare at his friends in shock. Why were they saying these lies? They knew Ash actually sacrificed his own training and talent to allow the other's to grow. Why were they doing this?_

_ Professor Oak stepped up, "In the first ten years of his life, Ash had done whatever it took to receive attention, good or bad. He destroyed several things in his way just so he could better himself. In fact, he set fire to my preserve, destroying several of my pokemon's habitats, just so he could properly 'train' his pokemon. I later found out that it was just a cover to abuse his pokemon!"_

_ A gasp ran through the crowd as Ash tightened his fist, furious at his former friends. How dare they speak these lies? He helped them grow for five years and they just throw him away like trash when he was done. They betrayed him in the worst way possible. They betrayed his trust._

_ As Ash vowed to make sure the traitors paid, the judge dismissed the witnesses. "Now, the jury will convene to deliver sentence._

_ After several minutes, the jury came back out and handed their decision to the judge. He began to speak, "Ash Ketchum, you are declared guilty on all counts. Despite the punishment being the death penalty, you are a minor, which requires a change in sentence in this case. You are stripped of all possessions, including pokemon, and will be imprisoned until you are eighteen years of age, where you will then receive the death penalty." The judge brought his gavel down._

_ As Ash was taken away to his new cell, he turned to glare at his former friends, who were talking and laughing without a care in the world. It made him angry to see them like this. Deep inside himself, Ash hoped that Max was still on his side, since he wasn't here, but Ash couldn't bet on that. _

_ As he took in the sight, deep within his heart, a candle went out..._

_End Flashback_

"After you were declared guilty, you were imprisoned for approximately two days, which you then made your escape from Viridian City and into the wilderness." Scott finished, looking at Ashura to see if he wanted to add any details.

Ashura said, "If you want to know about how I escaped, then I'll tell you. It's not even close to important to me anymore. When I got in my cell, I waited for a couple days, stewing in my hate and sadness and shock. Then, when I decided I wouldn't go down like this, I escaped... using Pikachu."

At Scott's expression of disbelief, Ashura chuckled, "Since it is so well known that Pikachu never stays in his ball, the police didn't bother to grab Pikachu's poke ball from me. After a couple days, I merely returned Pikachu, who was waiting a fair distance away from my cell window after escaping his own confinements, back to his ball and let him out inside my prison cell."

"We blew through the guards, having much more experience than the Jenny's stationed there. When I went to grab my pokemon from processing, I only found a few of them. The rest had been shipped off, probably somewhere I'll never see them again. When I managed to escape the building, I thought I was free."

Ashura lowered his head in remembrance. "Then there just had to be a Team Rocket attack on the prison. I had to fight my way through Jenny's and Team Rocket in a massive three way battle royal. During the fight, Pikachu was severely injured. He managed to recover, but he's never been the same"

"Because of the fighting, it attracted the attention of the strongest forest pokemon around. And one just happened to be my Pidgeot, who managed to help me escape to Altomare."

Scott raised an eyebrow and asked, "Before we continue this discussion, why did you decide to go to Altomare?"

Ashura smiled and replied, "That's easy. The Five Regions were too dangerous for me to live in, and Altomare was the only place I could think off outside of their jurisdiction. Besides, I had some old friends there and it was my favorite place besides Pallet. It was an obvious choice to those that knew me. It seemed like no one really did."

Scott nodded and got more papers out, "Understandable. Anyway, after your escape, I researched heavily into your trial and the crime. I knew that you could not of done it. After three years, I discovered some shocking things. You were indeed set up."

Ashura frowned, "I knew that already,"

Scott smiled and leaned in, "But I found much more. Do you want to know who did it? Why they did it? How they did it? How does it factor into the invitation? What they plan to do?"

Ashura's expression morphed back into hardened indifference as he leaned in as well, but Scott could tell that he had Ashura's full attention, "I'm listening"

Scott smiled as he began to explain,

"My first thought was a criminal organization was the one that set you up, like Team Rocket, Magma, Aqua, or Galactic. You had managed to stop all of the organizations multiple times, and it would make sense that they would target you. But as dug deeper, that began to not make much sense. All of the organizations had declined severely over the years, and by my approximation, they didn't have the resources or the manpower to go after you."

Ashura frowned and replied, "If not them, then who did it?"

"As I followed the trails buried in the data, I started coming across anomalies. Things you wouldn't pick up at first glance or even a cursory search. You had to be looking deep to even notice the irregularities."

"What kind of irregularities?" Ashura inquired.

"All different kinds. Financial, Medical, Technological, everything you can think off, it had things wrong with it. And I began to wonder, why were they here? What caused them? This had me working for three years straight in secret, after which I finally discovered the truth. Ashura, it was the Pokemon League itself that set you up and fixed your trial."

Scott watched as Ashura went through several layers of visible shock and he almost fell out of his chair. As he straightened up, his face was full of venomous hate.

"Explain, now!" Ashura yelled, causing a few strange looks to be sent at them.

Scott shrugged, "I came across money trails sent by the Pokemon League to an unregistered account, owned by a Mr. Legendary. The money was then removed from the account, and two days later, the restaurant your mother owned was destroyed. I then investigated Mr. Legendary, which led to some shocking news. That Mr. Legendary was contracted by the League to do a job in Pallet Town for them, as well as the fact that Mr. Legendary was no other than the Tobias from the Sinnoh League."

Ashura's eyebrow's shot up at the news, "You're saying Tobias destroyed the restaurant on the orders of the Pokemon League?"

Scott nodded, "Yes, Tobias appears to be the League's, or if not the organization's it's owner's, privately owned mercenary who is paid to do morally questionable jobs quietly."

Ashura's eyes narrowed in hate. If he met Tobias again, he was a dead man. "Why did the League contract Tobias to kill my mother?"

Scott sighed and brought out even more papers, "Now, this is where it gets really scary. When investigating the link between the League and Tobias, I came across some very disturbing news." He brought out a letter and gave it to Ashura to read,

_ Our esteemed backers,_

_ We expect the normal amount to be deposited in our accounts no later than this Friday, at the normal time. In return, we will continue to do as we promised to, in order for you to go about your business unhindered._

_ From,_

_ Your faithful friends_

Ashura put the note down when he finished reading it and asked, "What does this mean?"

"This was in the outbox of all the owners of the Pokemon League. And this was sent through several channels that end up with an address that is known to be a major information hub for criminal organizations."

Ashura's jaw hit the floor again as he took in Scott's words, "So you're saying that Team Rocket, Aqua, Magma, and Galactic pay the Pokemon League off?"

Scott nodded and continued, "Actually, just the owners such as Mr. Goodshow, but yeah. This information shed new light on the irregularities I was talking about earlier. Police ratings dropping over the years unexpectedly, the vanishing money, the movement of a chemical that hampers pokemon growth to pokemon centers, it all made sense once I had the above letter. The Pokemon League purposely hinders it's police force, sends money to questionable sources, and has the audacity to use the chemical in Pokemon Center's in hamper every pokemon's growth who passes through it, just so the criminal organizations would not have near as much trouble in doing what they want."

Ashura could feel murderous thoughts pass through him as he received this information. The Pokemon League was controlled by corrupt bastards who helped criminal organizations hurt countless of innocent lives. How dare they?

"I assume the League went after me because I was stopping the criminal organizations, and therefore cutting off the owner's paybacks?" Ashura inquired. Scott nodded.

"One more question, why did my friends betray me that day?"

"That's easy. They didn't like you in the first place, and they were offered lots of money in order to say those things at your trial."

Ashura fell silent, pondering Scott's words. As he thought, Scott began to hope that Ashura would help him after all.

"I assume you didn't come all this way just to tell me this. You have a plan where I play a part in" Ashura asked.

Scott grinned, time to get down to business. "Ever since your escape, the criminal organizations tried to recover from their losses, but the damages you inflicted on them were too great. To prevent themselves from having to shut down, they contacted the league owners, specifically Mr. Goodshow, and asked for money. The owners were more than willing too, seeing as if the organizations fall, they get exposed and ousted from power, but Internal Affairs was closely watching everyone's actions due to your escape. They couldn't give the money through their normal means."

"Approximately six months ago, they decided that a tournament would be held, the very one described on your invitation. It would have the best of the best, but would be fixed so that Tobias would win. He would gain possession of the money and then give to the criminal organizations, saving them from bankruptcy."

Ashura frowned, "So the tournament is just an elaborate transfer of funds from the corrupt owners to the criminals,"

Scott nodded, "Indeed, and the way it's like now, Tobias will win. You were the only one that had enough talent back then to beat him. Your pokemon were just hampered by the chemical and you were caught off guard. So..."

Ashura sighed, "You want me to enter the tournament and win in order to stop the funds from being transferred."

Scott smiled, "Yes, that is what I had in mind. Among a few other things."

Ashura raised an eyebrow, "Like what"

"The League right now is just a corrupt institution. I have dedicated my life to the advancement of the Pokemon battle, and the League is in the way of that. By using you, I'll show them that the League is too far behind our outdoor neighbors, and that we need to join the global community in order to keep up. Also, it allows you to tie up all of your loose ends. All of your formal friends will be there, Tobias will be there, Mr. Goodshow will be there. You can show them the magnitude of their transgressions."

Ashura pondered the idea for a bit, then asked, "How did I get into the tournament anyway. Mr. Goodshow would not of invited me due to the nature of this tournament."

"Well, I procured it for you. I was allowed to invite one trainer who I think can truly stand for the art of Pokemon Battles and allow them to compete in the tournament. I choose you, the only person capable of stopping the revival of every single criminal organization from happening. So, what do you say? Will you help me?"

Ashura leaned back and thought about everything he has learned. This was an opportunity to strike back at the society that hurt him. He could punish the guilty, check to see if Max still believed in him, bring down a corrupt institution, and save the world again. True, he would lose the quietness of his current life, but he had nothing to do anyway.

_"What do you say, Latias?" _Ashura inquired his mate.

Latias was beyond furious after hearing what her mate had gone through. Her instincts screamed at her to attack those guilty, or at least make them pay.

_"I think it's obvious, Ash. We have some catching up to do_."

Ashura nodded imperceptibly and turned back to Scott, who was awaiting his answer.

"I think it's time I show the Pokemon League the true power of the Altomare Ace. I'll do it."

**AN:** I hope you enjoyed the second chapter of _The Altomare Ace_.

Surprise! Bet none of you saw that coming! It always seems to be the criminal's fault for Ash's mother dieing and Ash being betrayed, which is not unique. Since I wanted one of a kind for this story, I thought why not make the League the bad guys this time around.

A lot of backstory has been described, but not all of it. I plan on doing a lot of Bashing except for Max, who will a mentor relationship with Ashura.

Next chapter will have Ashura preparing to leave to Ever Grande City. His Pokemon will also be revealed next chapter. Also expect some more POV than just Ashura.

This story will still be sporadically updated. No rigid schedule for this story.

That's all. Please review and respond. See you later!

Primordial Soul


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: **Hey, it's Primordial Soul with the third chapter of _The Altomare Ace._

I'm really sorry about the wait for an update. Xbox 360, homework, vacation, college apps, some writer's block, and procrastination all combined into me not writing anything for my stories.

I am once again very happy about all the support you guys have given me in this story. Thank you for reading.

I will be very busy over the last few weeks of summer, and I will have less time on the computer. Do not expect scheduled updates for my stories. I will write and post when I can. My current focus is _The Altomare Ace_, but I will update _Blessed By Victory._

Now, onto the story. Here, Ashura prepares to leave for Ever Grande City, his pokemon get revealed, some more backstory about Ashura and Latias, and multiple POV's.

FYI, Ashura is leaving around two weeks early than the invitation deadline, so the tournament will not be right when Ashura arrives in Ever Grande. What he and everyone else does before the tournament, that's a secret (not really)!

* * *

**Nathaniel Gabriel Baker**: Thank's for the compliment! I have no idea when exactly I'll post new chapters, due to my busy schedule.

**Baracudaz: **As of this point, Ashura has **not** found most of his old pokemon. He only has the one's he found during his escape. Well, plus one more, but that's explained in this chapter.

**Guest: **Thanks! I always thought Ash sucked in Sinnoh, and the idea fit nicely in with the corrupt league idea that was brewing in my mind at the time.

**Ak: **If Ashura does get his old pokemon back, it will not be until later in the story. That is all I can say at this point.

**Uranium 235: **Regarding the aura power's, that's answered in this chapter. Regarding giving him a Lucario... I must admit I'm a little hesitant on giving Ash one. They are cool pokemon and all, but I don't know...

**Gigatron4624**: Well, I would do that, but then I would have to kill off hundreds of innocent pokemon. No, Oak will get something else.

**Hreft93: **I plan on making this not too angsty. There will be some when he confronts his old friends, but I plan on focusing on the events and the other things Ashura gets into.

**Battleking & SneakyDevil**: Thanks for the compliments! I do try my best to be original.

I believe that's it. I hope you enjoy this chapter of the _The Altomare Ace_.

"Talk"- Regular Speech

"_Talk"- Telepathy_

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT APPEARS IN THIS STORY!

* * *

After meeting with Scott, Ashura quickly prepared himself and his team for his first visit to the five regions since his escape. He and Scott had discussed details, plans and what sort of challenge Ashura should expect.

Scott had explained that before the tournament was a seminar type event, where trainers could mingle and learn from and about others among other things. Ashura was to go to the entirety of the event so he could learn exactly what opposition he faced and how skilled they were. He would also use the time to find more evidence against the Pokemon League; Ashura and Scott probably already had enough, but it wouldn't hurt to be sure. In addition, Ashura learned that was still guilty of his crimes four years ago, although the search had been called off for some time. Good thing Ash Ketchum was dead.

As Ashura ran around the secret garden, gathering his belongings and preparing for the challenge ahead, he began to wonder about how the future would unfold. Did Max still believe in him? How would this impact his current life? How would he fare? He scoffed at his last thought. He was the Altomare Ace and the Prince of Champions. Of course he would do well.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Latias in her normal Pokemon form float up to him, concern evident in her gorgeous amber eyes. Ashura embraced her, pressing her draconic form against his own.

"Hey, Latias. What do you think of this? Did I make the right choice in accepting this?"

_"Of course you did, Ash. The League is corrupt down to its very core. This needs to be done for everyone's sake. Including your own,"_

Ashura sighed, blowing warm air across Latias's cheek, making her shake with pleasure. "I thought as such. It's just so weird, going back to the Regions after four years of absence. I just thought that I would never return. Especially see them again..."

Latias looked back up and looked into Ash's dark red eyes, holding uncertainty over the events to come. Wanting to cheer him up and feeling her desire for him growing, she turned human and kissed him. Ash closed his eyes and held her closer to his body as he returned the kiss with all the passion in the world.

After several minutes of kissing, the two reluctantly broke apart for air and continued to gaze at each other.

"You'll be fine. I and every single pokemon under your command will be at your side."Latias whispered.

"Thank you, Latias" Ash murmured back.

A low chuckle alerted the two to an observer of their passion. With a low growl, Ash and Latias turned to face the individual. It had a white lower body that consisted of bold rounded hips with strong legs. Its torso was thin and colored in a balance between the dark blue of its upper body and the white of its lower body. Sharp cyan hornlike protrusions stuck out of the chest and back. Its arms are shaped like tonfas, with extendable blades in the elbows. Its head resembled a gladiator's helmet, with a white face and a light-teal colored head crest.

"Damn it, Gallade. You're such a voyeur." Latias said to Gallade, angered that their private time had been interrupted.

Gallade shrugged and replied, "Well, I wouldn't be if you made out in private. I can't help but see you snog if you don't actually shut your door."

The two blushed at his comment. What he said was indeed true.

"Well, Gallade, what do you need?" Ashura inquired.

Gallade crossed his arms and replied, "Well, Bianca got your message and said she would look after the public while you're in Hoenn. She said you can leave when you're ready."

Ashura nodded, glad that Bianca could tell the public about his departure and handle it while he was gone. Bianca had grown immensely over the four years he had been here and had become a professional painter. After Lorenzo's death, she then took on the role of Ash's public relations manager, which Lorenzo had previously held, when he needed her.

"All right, tell Bianca that I really appreciate her taking some time off her work to handle the crowds. What else did you want to tell me?"

"Just that your pokemon are getting very restless and are eager to leave for Ever Grande later today" Gallade responded, smirking at Ashura's groan in response.

"Do I really need someone to babysit them? I thought they could be able to handle themselves. Love, could you go and keep an eye on them? I don't want any injuries right before this tournament?"

Latias smiled and responded, "Of course, Ash. Have fun, you two." She then got up and left, leaving Ashura and Gallade alone. Ashura looked up to see Gallade still smirking at him, evidently waiting for something.

Ashura sighed as he stood up and took off his jacket, "All right, let's go"

Gallade's smiled widened as he extended his blades and crouched down, excitement and anticipation gleaming in his eyes. He was hoping Ashura would do one last lessons before they left and were unable to practice their most secret things.

"You first, Master" Gallade said as his blades began to glow with a blue light and were infused with his aura.

Ashura smiled as an aura sphere formed in his right hand. "You'll regret it"

* * *

Far away in Petalberg City, a young thirteen year old kid stood facing his six main battling pokemon; a Grovyle, a Gardevoir, a Mightyana, a Shuppet, a Swellow, and a Breloom. He wore a green shirt and white shorts, with large-framed glasses and blue-green hair. In his right hand was a piece of paper, which happened to be an invitation to the Top 128 competition in Ever Grande City.

"All right, after three years of hard work, we've made it to Top 128 in the entire Five Regions," Max began, looking at each one of his pokemon. "We may not win, we may not be the best, but we'll damn well do our best. We have to, for ourselves and for Ash..." he trailed off, unwilling to talk about the older trainer.

Max had looked up to Ash when he was younger. Despite Ash's denseness and his lazy approach to training, Max could tell that Ash had the most potential that he had ever seen. It broke his heart when Ash was framed and convicted for murder. It was further crushed when everyone who cared about Ash turned against him.

Mac could never figure out why they would betray Ash so terribly. Were they not his friends? Didn't they care about them? Max had never forgiven them for their actions four years ago, but he hadn't managed to escape from their presence, due to the fact May was friends with them and he was dragged along.

"Max, get your butt over here! Everyone is waiting for you!" his sister's irate voice rang out. Max sighed as he returned his pokemon and began to walk towards May; she really had turned into an arrogant bitch over the years.

As Max approached May, he took in the crowd around him. To his left stood Gary and his girlfriend Misty and Paul and his girlfriend Dawn. To his right were May, his parents, and Professor Oak. All people Max now despised for their treatment over Ash.

"Finally, what took you? I have a tournament to win!" Gary proclaimed pompously, causing Misty to sigh in contentment at her boyfriend's statement.

"You mean the tournament I'll win and the one where you'll go crying off to your grandad?" Paul sneered, causing Dawn to giggle at Gary's insulted expression.

Oak stepped in between the two and replied, "Now, knock it off you two. The tournament doesn't start in two weeks; we're merely leaving early to take part of the seminar events. You can fight all you want once you're in Ever Grande, just wait until I can get great info about the contestants." His eyes turned to stars as he imagined all the info he could gain, legally or otherwise.

Max sighed and said, "You guys are really arrogant." All eyes turned towards him as he spoke. "This tournament has the Top 128 people in all of the Five Regions. You're not guaranteed to win or even make it far."

"You don't know anything, so be quiet!" Gary yelled.

"Yeah, we've been doing this for much longer than you, kid." Paul said. Every one started at Max, angry at his audacity for voicing his thoughts.

Max snorted internally as the limo that would take them to the airport arrived. He couldn't believe how cruel and arrogant the group had turned over the years, especially to him since he had supported Ash and was young. Max wanted nothing more than to simply get up and leave everyone behind and go hunt down Ash, who Max believed to still be alive after his close escape from prison. However, he was only thirteen and he wouldn't get far before his so called family and friends hunted him down. He would have to wait until he was older.

As every one piled into the car, Max turned to look at the setting sun. It was radiant and colorful, a beacon that symbolized hope. He closed his eyes as he felt its ray's soothe his skin.

As he stood there, basking in the sun, he silently wished that he could find Ash soon, leave his family and friends behind, and become a great trainer.

"Oh, what am I thinking? It won't happen." Max thought as the car began to move to the airport. Little did he know that Jirachi smiled upon him, and that his wish would be more true than he thought.

* * *

Far far away, in the headquarters of the Pokemon League, Charles Goodshow sipped his extremely expensive wine as he waited for his guest to arrive. He was in his lush private office, surrounded by the wealth he had made since starting the Pokemon League through his... _illustrious _contacts.

Goodshow smiled at the thought. The Five Regions had no clue that the very League the dominated their lives actually made the criminal organizations able to achieve their goals easier. A pathetic police force, stunted pokemon, illegal money transfer, every thing was done to make sure the criminals were satisfied and willing to pay. And pay they did. Goodshow was loaded with money and was set for life. If all went well.

Goodshow sighed again as he reached to refill his glass. The criminals were not doing well and would be bankrupt by the end of the year, all because of one lucky kid, Ash Ketchum. Goodshow couldn't understand how the criminals could be utterly crushed by a rash, immature teenager. True, Ash was better than most trainers, but still, to take down four criminal organizations filled with members with over four times the amount of training. He had gotten so lucky.

Goodshow had watched the kid for a long time and knew that he was going to be trouble if he didn't stop the kid's rise. If the kid managed to bring down all of the criminal organizations, he would be exposed in the cleanup and ousted from power. He tried a lot of indirect manipulation, trying to get the kid to fall, but he always managed to avoid it. So, when he managed to wound the last criminal organization paying him, he had enough and got Tobias, his legal force, and his police force to frame him and kill him. He also easily got his so called friends to denounce him in court to make sure Ash was convicted. Once Ash was sent to prison, Goodshow thought he was through with him.

Until the brat managed to escape two days after his trial. Goodshow still had no idea how he had managed to, but he must have been smarter than what Goodshow gave him credit for. It was a miracle that Goodshow had already sent most of the kid's pokemon somewhere he'll never find them. Ash, however, had not been seen for four years, and Goodshow assumed that the kid, who was the only obstacle to his plan, would not be returning to the Five Regions.

Goodshow's thoughts began to drift to the upcoming tournament. All of the criminal organizations were about to go bankrupt, and needed money in order to keep operating. If they didn't get the money, they would stop working, and he would be exposed during the cleanup. That said, Goodshow would of course give them as much money as they needed, he had much, much more than he could use. But because of blasted Internal Affairs, he couldn't give it to them via the normal channels. So, he decided to host a tournament that whose prize money would go to someone who would then give it to the criminals.

A person entered the room, causing Goodshow to be brought out of his thoughts. He looked up and smiled at the person, he was the exact person he had been waiting for.

Tobias, wearing the outfit he had worn at the Sinnoh League, asked, "You called for me, Mr. Goodshow?''

"Yes, yes, yes, please sit. Would you like some wine?" Goodshow asked. Tobias shook his head no as he sat down.

"Very well. I'm assuming that you know what your assignment is?"

Tobias nodded and replied, "I will be participating in this childish tournament. I will win it, and I will give the prize money to your private backers. Once I have done so, I will be payed at the highest rate we have agreed upon."

Goodshow nodded, pleased as always of his employee's efficiency. "Good as always. This job is much more important than most you have done before. Because of its importance, I have a little... aid to help you in your task." Goodshow brought out a medium sized box filled with vials containing a green liquid.

Tobias scowled and responded, "You insult me with the mere offering of those. I don't need them to beat those punks."

Goodshow shook his head and said, "This is not an insult. More like a contingency. Just in case."

"What brought you to do this. You haven't done something like this for any of my jobs."

Goodshow frowned, "This came along because there are a few people in this tournament who I haven't personally selected, and were instead selected by other important figures such as Cynthia, Lance, and Scott. I don't know their capabilities or their styles. That box is simply a precaution against those few."

Tobias, after a couple seconds of thought, nodded and accepted the box. As he slipped it into a nearby briefcase, he asked, "Will all of these trainers be at the seminar"

Goodshow nodded, "All of them will be at the seminar. I would suggest watching them during those two weeks and learning all about them."

Tobias replied, annoyed at the insinuation that he wouldn't, "Of course I am. What do you think I am, stupid?"

Goodshow raised his hands in apology and responded, "No, of course not. I apologize for my insult. Now, the seminar will be begin in two days time in Ever Grande City. You and me are leaving tonight. Go get your stuff."

Tobias nodded and left after hearing his dismissal. Goodshow sighed and reached out to drink his glass. He would feel a lot better once his backers were back of their feet.

"I hope that these few trainers I have not selected won't be good in the tournament" Goodshow thought.

He wouldn't realize until much, much later, how wrong his hope was.

* * *

Ashura approached the center of the garden, where his pokemon were all settled for him to arrive. The aura practice with Gallade was good exercise and a surprisingly good fight, even though Ashura won like always. Gallade had pouted when he had finally gone down. He had never won against his master in the three and a half years together..

Once they had finished the practice, Ashura had quickly gathered the rest of his belongings and got himself ready for his imminent departure. After packing his bags, Ashura had meet up with Bianca to finalize her job while he was gone. She had grown a lot physically in the past four years, although her personality hadn't changed a bit. After some pleasantries, Bianca had said that everything was taken care of. The budding facility would still be worked on while he was gone, the public was aware of his departure and ready to watch him destroy the competition, and she was prepared to take care of any pokemon he kept at the garden. Ashura had thanked her for her cooperation, which Bianca waved off and said anyone would be glad to help the Altomare Ace and the Prince of Champions.

After Bianca left, Ashura had gotten something to eat, and was now heading to talk to his pokemon, who were eager to leave and finally kick some ass after the last boring tournament in Orre.

Right as Ashura was able to see his pokemon, he stopped and looked them all over, a smile on his face. He wouldn't of made it this far without them. He glanced left to right, taking them all in.

To his far left were his original pokemon, the one's he had managed to save from prison. He saw Rotom, his first pokemon, floating in the air, laughing his trademark laugh. He saw Pidgeot perched far to the back, preening his wings. He saw Sceptile, sitting in a tree with his trademark twig in his mouth. He saw his Blastoise laughing along with Rotom, probably sharing stories about the old days. He saw Garchomp, who was current bitting Blastoise's shell, who was oblivious to Garchomp's actions. He saw Glalie, who was currently floating next to his mate, another Glalie, and his daugther, a Froslass.

He saw Charizard, who had managed to escape from the Charicific Valley before he could be captured by the league.

In the center were pokemon he had befriend during the old days, and were now a part of his team. He saw Pupitar, currently spinning like a top. He saw Gengar, laughing her ass off along with Rotom and Blastoise. He saw Latias, the only one looking right at him, waiting for him to speak. He saw another, floating high in the sky, barely visible even to his advanced aura sight.

To his right were the pokemon he captured during his four years abroad. He saw his blue Gallade, silently observing Ashura's pokemon while sharpening his blades. He saw Magnezone, currently shocking and annoying his Scizor. He saw Metagross, sleeping in the back of the crowd. He saw Ninjask, currently poking his Shedinja. He saw Togetic, flying around the garden. He saw Dragonair, bathing in the water. Finally, he saw Solrock, glowing with psychic energy as he played with nearby rocks.

Ashura began to move toward his pokemon, smiling at them. He could remember every single story on how he met each one of his pokemon. He could remember the effort they put in for him. He could remember their excitement on their successes. Ashura could not ask for better pokemon.

As Ashura came closer, his pokemon stopped what they were doing and faced Ashura, waiting for him to speak like he always did right before a competition. Ashura had found it good and surprisingly therapeutic if he talked to his pokemon right before a tournament.

"As you all know, we've come so far in the years we have been together," Ashura began. He looked everyone of his pokemon directly in the eye as he began to pace.

"We've learned, trained, fought, and won together on the field of battle. We've improved so much, have come so far from the League boy I once was. We've won the Prodigy Challenge! We've won the Royal Line!"

"And now, it's time for another tournament. This one is different, though. This isn't for fun. This isn't a joke, no matter how bad the opponents are. This will bring us right into my past." His pokemon gasped, they knew how much he had hated those in his past.

"After four years of absence, I have been called upon to stop the resurrection of every criminal organization in the Five Regions. By doing so, we will face everything from my past. It won't be easy, especially for me. It won't be short. All I can say is, when we step on to the field of battle, under the scrutiny of those arrogant Leaguers, do one thing."

"Go out there, and give them hell!"

His pokemon cheered as Ashura finished his speech. They would not let him down. Ashura had pushed them so hard, had invested so much time into making them great. He had helped them in their times of need. They would do whatever they could to help Ashura through his.

Ashura nodded in thanks and replied, "We are leaving for the tournament two weeks early, so we can scout out the competition and for me to find evidence against the League's corruption. We're leaving in five, so I'm going to return all but the Glalie's."

Ashura lifted his left arm to reveal a large, wrist mounted machine. It was recently designed by Artican industries. It served as a mass pokemon storage, healer and releaser. In other words, it could carry all of your pokemon, release any pokemon you want, and heal them completely when they were returned. No Poke balls were required.

Ashura swiftly returned everyone but the two Glalie's, Gallade, Rotom and Latias. The two Glalie's floated away to go to Bianca's place, it had been decided earlier that the mated pair not go to this tournament and instead stay with Bianca.

"Well, this is it. Ready to face your past, Ash?" Gallade asked.

Ashura nodded, "I hope so Gallade. I'm returning you though while in transit."

Gallade smirked and replied, "Hope you have a lovely flight with your mate."

Ashura blushed at Gallade's comment as he raised his right arm, revealing a glove that had a flat crystal imbedded on top of his hands. Gallade turned into a flurry of blue particle as he entered the crystal, which served as his poke ball.

Ashura turned to Rotom, his best friend. "You have any words before we go buddy?"

Rotom shook his head and replied, _"Nope. I just would like some ketchup when we arrive and to wish you and Latias a happy flight. You haven't gone in a while."_

Ashura laughed, "Yeah, we have a lot of fun. I'm so glad I acquired that ability when I mastered my aura. It's so cool."

Rotom laughed in response, _"Yeah, I know how much fun you and Latias have while you're using it. It's really helped your guy's relationship. You guy's are probably the only human/pokemon relationship that will actually work in the long run."_

Latias blushed and replied, _"Yes, Ash's ability really has helped us get closer. I eagerly await our flight."_

Rotom nodded and replied, _"Well, I won't keep you waiting." _Rotom then turned into yellow particles and entered the crystal on his left hand.

Ashura shook his head and turned to Latias, whose draconic body still caused Ash after four years to check her out. "Those crystals are spectacular. Rotom never entered his poke ball before, and now he willingly enters an capture crystal, which is just an old poke ball."

_"Maybe Rotom was just waiting for the right home" _Latias asked, blushing as Ashura checked her out. It made her so happy when Ashura looked at her like that.

Ashura shrugged and replied, "Maybe. Are you ready for our flight, my love?"

Latias grinned in anticipation and replied, _"Of course, Ash"_

Ashura nodded and closed his eyes, reaching deep inside himself to his aura core to trigger his ability. Ashura could remember the day he had received his ability. After all, it was the day his eyes turned dark red and the day he and Latias entered a relationship.

Latias watched Ashura as he began to glow. She had thanked Arceus so much when Ashura had gained this ability. It enabled them to get so much closer, and it gave them a chance for a long future together.

After a couple seconds, a bright flash temporarily blinded Latias, and when her sight cleared, she saw her mate in what he now considered his true form.

Before her where Ashura once stood floated a Latios, one a little larger than what her late brother had been. His feathers were black where they were normally blue, and his draconic body was sleek and superb in Latias's eyes. His dark red eyes, exactly the same as Ashura's, stared at Latias with unhidden adoration. Before her was the most handsome being she had every seen. And it was Ashura.

_"I am so glad that you gained this form when you mastered your aura. It gives us a future together. Plus it makes you totally dashing," _Latias said, eyes still locked on the black Latios before her.

The Latios laughed at her words and replied, _"I am also glad that I received this form. It allows me to be as close as one could be with you. Thanks for the compliment. You ready to fly?"_

Latias flew closer and snuggled the Latios, _"Of course, Ash." _She quickly backed away and flew out of the garden, Ashura close behind her.

Ashura always loved being in his true form, flying though the air and feeling the innate power inside him. It allowed him to truly connect with the world with large, and also with Latias. He could give her everything a normally born Latios could and what a human couldn't. Because of how close he could be with Latias, Ashura over the years he had it came to think of his human form as a disguise, a front for his trainer battles, and came to think of his Lati form as his true form because of the long term future it gave him with Latias. Ashura knew that when his battling career was over, he would ditch his human form except under certain circumstances, and spend most of his time as a Latios in order to build the future he and Latias agreed upon after his battling career.

As Ashura raced after Latias as they headed to Ever Grande to face his past, feeling the air against his feathers and the rays of the sun against his sleek draconic body, he could think of no place he'd rather be.

* * *

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed this chapter of _The Altomare Ace_.

This is my longest chapter, and I am very proud of it.

Ashura has now left for Ever Grande, his pokemon have been revealed, more backstory is introduced, and you now have the POV's of Max and Goodshow. Ashura will be participating in the seminar, and there will be events that he wall take part in as he waits for the tournament.

Ashura will be making some new friends while at Ever Grande. I don't want to say much else, but they will be OC's.

As I said above, I will be really busy. Do not expect scheduled updates. They will appear when I have time.

Next chapter will have Ashura, Max, and the others arriving in Ever Grande, as well as the start of the seminar.

I can't think of much else. Please review and respond.

See you later!

Primordial Soul


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: **Hey, it's Primordial Soul with the fourth chapter of _The Altomare Ace_

I'm hard at work with my homework and organizing college stuff, so I decided to take a break and write this chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

If you don't know, I've started two other stories that only have pilot chapters. The first one is _The Lord of Revenge_, a Star Wars/Star Wars crossover featuring DSM Revan. The second one was _Primal Valkyrie, _a Mass Effect/Transformers story, but I'm reworking it into just a Transformers story after a day of reflection. Go check them out. The more they're read, the more pressure on me to update them

I've got a lot of people wanting me to add a Lucario to Ashura's team. Since you guys have spoken, I've decided to give Ashura one, however, he will not get it right away as I have a cool idea on how he gets one. Also, Ashura will not be learning Aura with it, as he had already become an aura user with Gallade.

Now, story time. Everyone arrives in Ever Grande and the seminar starts up. Friends are made, and surprises are abound.

**Elia41- **You will not see a gen of Lati's for a _very _long time. After all, Ashura is still in his battling career.

**Kyuuo- **You'd be correct in that it's another Legendary. I'm not telling what it is though. You'll have to wait.

**Lightningblade49- **1.) Possibly. You'd never know. 2.) Yes, I'm going ahead to say that Lance and Cynthia are not dark and corrupted. In fact, they are as oblivious as the rest of society to the League's corruption.

**Quackerjack- **Sorry if you're confused about Max being unable to leave. I'll clear that up in the near future. Thank you for your honesty about the "I saw" part, I was trying to establish parallelism and I must of messed up. And regarding the situation with Brock... I have nothing to say. XD You have to wait for that answer.

**The Silent Insomniac** – Indeed, it was. It was one of my inspirations for this story.

**Kitsune of darkfire- **That would be funny, but it would ruin all tension and conflict in the story. Besides, Goodshow would never make Tobias fight unknown variables. He would would wait for as long as possible to have Tobias fight people that Goodshow hadn't personally picked so Tobias could have the most information possible about each one of them.

I believe that's it. I hope you enjoy this chapter of _The Altomare Ace_.

"Talk" Normal Speech

"_Talk" Telepathy_

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT APPEARS IN THIS STORY!

As the mated pair of Lati's came closer to Ever Grande City, Ashura could feel a sense of familiarity. He could remember the old days when he was just a young, naïve kid, fighting for a simple title that meant nothing for the world at large. Still, it was nice to have no other worries, just a burning desire to win with a denseness that was legendary even to Arceus. Ashura sighed to nostalgia as he angled his body downward to a unoccupied patch of shore where they could set down. Ignorance was bliss.

The two Latis landed, out of sight of any human. Before Ashura could transform back to human, Latias grabbed his right claw and said, _"Ash, we haven't spent much time together like this and we're early by an hour. Let's stay and have some fun."_

Ashura smiled at his mate's statement. He really liked staying his Latios form and he was early...

_"All right, my love, you win. How about we play a game? Since I had to race after you the entire time here... TAG, YOU'RE IT!"_ Ashura poked Latias's wing and flew away from his now annoyed mate.

_"Get back here, mister!" _Latias growled as she raced after Ashura, intent on making him pay for his little stunt. However, it was in vain. Ashura's bigger body allowed for more speed and endurance, and a hour later, a tired Latias was enduring her mate's laughter in a small clearing.

_"Oh come on, Latias, you have to admit that was fun! You were just too small to keep up!" _Ashura instantly shut his mouth as he realized what he said, but it was too late to save him from a woman scorned.

_"SMALL! I'LL SHOW YOU SMALL!" _Latias yelled as she tackled Ashura, sending them both to the ground. They wrestled for some time, ruffling their feathers and causing their wings to catch on the dirty ground. After five minutes, they stopped their playful wrestling, both tired and now dirty.

_"Well, I haven't had that much fun in some time. Thank you Latias. We really should do that more often," _Ashura admitted.

_"Well, I'm glad that I did something right" _Latias said coyly, glad that she had managed to make the former King of Denseness to realize something. _"We better get going, you need to register __for the seminar."_

Ashura nodded as they both turned back to human form. Ashura was wearing another outfit of his Altomare Ace clothing, exactly like what he was wearing when he received Scott's letter. As they began to walk to the pokemon center, Ashura briefly took the time to look over his mate's beautiful human form.

She had long, straight red hair, the same color as her feathers, that reached down to her waist. She still had her deep amber eyes, and she had a very shapely body that was the same shade as Ashura's body. She wore a long, flowing white dress as well as a small blue Eon triangle pendant around her neck.

Ashura blushed as his mate whispered, "You like what you see, love?"

"Of course I do. You're a living goddess." he replied.

Latias smiled at the compliment, "I've have plans for you tonight. Tasty plans."

Ashura could hardly wait till tonight.

* * *

Nurse Joy sighed as she watched another contestant apply for the top 128 challenge. She Seriously, she was not impressed by the quality of trainers that had applied. Ever since she had taken a tour of duty outside the Five Regions, her opinion on quality trainers had drastically changed. What she previously thought of as fantastic was now average or even below average. In fact, her sister could probably crush or at least severely batter several of the applied contestants, provided that she used her Latias that she trained slightly outside of the Five Regions. What had gotten in Mr. Goodshow to invite them?

Her thoughts were interrupted as someone approached her desk, obviously wanting to apply for the tournament. Nurse Joy sighed as she turned to face the contestant, expecting yet another dunderhead. When she saw him, she couldn't be more wrong.

Before her was the utter personification of manhood. He had dark raven hair that was slightly controlled to stay on his head. He was tall and broad, and his abs clearly showed his physical state. He wore a pure white jacket with three red triangles and a black undershirt. His posture just screamed of experience and his gait gave him a _"Do not mess with me" _aura. But what really drew her in was his dark red eyes. They were so alien yet so fitting for the young man.

Nurse Joy could feel heat practically exploding from her cheeks, and she quickly thought, _"Oh, come on, Joy. You just fell that quickly for him. He's waiting for you. Come on, be professional, do your job_"

"Hello, are you here for the tournament?" Joy stuttered. She could feel her blush emerge even more as the young man smiled at her.

"Indeed I am. The name's Ashura Knight."

Nurse Joy nodded quickly as she brought up his information to clear him into the tournament. Maybe now the tournament would not be so bad...

"All right, you're all set. If you are going to take part in the pre-tournament activities, please proceed to the stadium at 7:00pm. If not, the tournament will open in two weeks time. Will you need a room?"

Ashura shook his head and replied, "No, I'm a more outdoors kind of person. Thanks for asking."

Nurse Joy blushed again at his kindness. Appearance, talent, and personality. She just had to make a move for him. She reached down for a piece of paper. Surely he would be free later today...

"Love, are you all registered?" Nurse Joy turned to see a beautiful woman walk up to Ashura. She was, Joy admitted, much more pretty than her with her long red hair, flowing white dress, and deep amber eyes.

"Yes, I was just about to go get you." Joy's heart plummeted as the two kissed, obviously each other's boy/girl friend. Damn it.

"Will that be all, sir?" Nurse Joy asked, her normal joviality being forced. This was just not her day.

"Yes, it will. Thanks for everything?" After he finished, Ashura put his arm around the girl and led her out of the center.

Joy sighed as she slumped down, slight tears running down her face. Why did the universe taunt her so much? The perfect catch, already taken...

* * *

Outside, Ashura and Latias turned to look at each other with bemused expressions.

"Joy was whipped with you." Latias could practically taste the hormones the woman was producing.

Ashura nodded anxiously, he did not want to have to beat her away with a stick. "She saw me as a big, juicy piece of meat. I actually feared for my virginity there."

Latias smiled mischievously as she leaned in to whisper in his ear, "You still are one? Maybe later, we aught to correct that together?"

She laughed as she saw her mate spontaneously had a nosebleed. Sometimes, it was just too easy to tease him.

Ashura suddenly wiped his nose and glared at something a fair distance away. Latias turned to look and saw the exact people that she did not want to see.

All of Ash's former friends were walking down the path to the pokemon center, laughing and talking like nothing had happened four years ago. She swiftly grabbed her mate's shaking arm and pulled him to the forest where they would not be spotted.

"Ash, you need to calm down." Latias ordered to her murderous love. She hated when he got like this, the last time he did, he sank an entire island. He had good reason though, just like this time. "You can't go all Aura Assassin on them, they deserve worse. Besides, you won't be able to stop Goodshow if you do kill them. Ash, please listen to me."

Latias sighed in relief as Ash began to calm down. That had been close.

"I will make sure they get their due" Ashura said quietly, imagining all the ways that he could make the traitors pay. He turned to stare at the traitors, taking everyone into account. Oak was quietly whistling, hands in his pockets. Gary and Misty were walking hand in hand, which surprised Ash. Didn't they hate each other? He was even more shocked to see Dawn and Paul together. Paul didn't even remember who she was when she traveled along side Ash. What had changed?

He turned his head to see May walking behind everyone else and watching the group, but mainly Brock. Ash snorted at the site. May must have turned into a bitch. He then turned to see his first surprise. Brock was much more subdued than normal, and he wasn't being a pervert! Ashura was flabbergasted. What happened to cause Brock to change so radically? Brock looked almost... guilty. Ash smiled as he resolved to take a closer look at him later. Brock might be salvageable as a friend.

Finally, he turned his head to Max. He really had grown the most over the years. He looked much more confident, less snarky, yet still had a sense of depression around him. Ash smiled again as he said something that earned the ire of almost everyone in the group. Yep, Max was definitely salvageable as well. The rest had to go.

Ashura turned and walked away, Latias pressed against him. He had a lot to do.

* * *

Max sighed again as the group approached the pokemon center. This was getting ridiculous. Paul and Gary were still going on about how they will win the tournament, and everyone else were still praising them for their skills. Max wanted to puke. How much more arrogant could they be?

After enduring yet another pointless comment about the pair's "skill", Max tuned them out and thought about the tournament. From what he saw, this tournament was not going to be pleasant. He could tell that the people around him were experienced veterans with well trained pokemon. It would take a lot of hard work and luck to help him proceed.

"You ready for this, Max?" he heard Brock say. He turned to smile at the older man. Brock was the only one of his friends that was bearable after the trial. Max had never known why, but Brock had hinted that it dealt with his actions at the trial. Max assumed that Brock possibly still believed in Ash, but Max had never gotten a peep out of him.

"Well, I could always use more experience, but more training isn't going to help us. Learning everything I can about the competition will help us,"

Brock smiled and replied, "Wise words. I remember telling Ash about that long ago..." He stopped talking, overcome by old memories.

Max, noticing the older man's situation, said, "I doing this for him. Ash would of loved to have been in this competition, and since he isn't, I'll do it for him."

Brock smiled again and responded, "That's very kind of you. He would enjoy you doing this for him. I wish he could see you though. He'd be so proud"

Max shrugged, "Maybe he is here. Maybe he isn't. I don't know. He could be anywhere, doing anything. I feel that it's my responsibility to do this for him. And once I'm done, I'll make him keep his promise to battle me."

Brock chuckled softly as they entered the pokemon center, "Good luck with that,"

Max opened his mouth to reply, but he stopped as he saw the sight of the resident Nurse Joy. She was surrounded by hundreds of blown tissues, and tears were streaming down her face. She was slouched over the counter, mumbling something.

"What's wrong with her?" Gary asked pompously, not caring at all about why Nurse Joy was acting like this. Max felt a surge of anger fly through him because of Gary's actions, but squashed it down. He would get into big trouble if he acted on his feelings.

Another Nurse Joy appeared behind the crying one and slowly escorted her out before taking her spot.

"I'm terribly sorry about that. My sister does not normally break down like that."

"Why did she then?" Max asked, curious about what could cause a jovial Nurse Joy to be reduced to that.

Nurse Joy cringed at the question and slowly replied, "Well, she is very sensitive regarding her feelings. She breaks down like that when some crush of hers gets taken away. He must have been a hottie; my sister has never cried that much before. I wish I saw him... Anyway, I digress. You all here for the tournament?"

As Nurse Joy signed the three tournament contestants up, Brock, with tears on his face, leaned down to whisper in Max's ear, "Why don't girls cry like that for me?"

Max laughed and replied, "Ah, Brock. I'm really, really glad that you're still a pervert at heart,"

* * *

"ALL PRE-TOURNAMENT APPLICANTS, PLEASE PROCEED TO THE STADIUM. ALL PRE-TOURNAMENT APPLICANTS, PLEASE PROCEED TO THE STADIUM!" The PA announced, breaking Ash's attention from the mock aura battle he had with Gallade. With a single hand gesture, Gallade returned to his capture crystal as Latias swooped down from her small flight. After Latias turned back human, they began to walk to the stadium.

"You ready for our public appearance, love?" Latias asked.

"I'm more than ready, Latias. Let's take them by storm." Ashura replied.

Fifteen minutes later, the two found themselves inside a crowded stadium, with everyone waiting for the Pre-tournament activities to begin. Ashura wanted to snort at all of the trainers proclaiming that they were good enough to win this. This title is nothing, kids, Ashura thought. No one outside the Five Regions gives a damn about League titles. The League and the exterior world were on two totally different scales.

"Hey," someone called out to Ash. Not recognizing the voice, Ashura turned to face whoever wanted to talk to him.

A boy and a girl around two years younger than Ashura walked up to him. The boy had short brown hair and dark blue eyes. He wore khaki cargo pants, a plain dark blue shirt, and fingerless dark blue gloves. The girl had neck long silver hair and green eyes. She wore white capri pants, a white shirt with a sea green vest over it. Ashura could just tell by looking at them that these two trainers were a cut above the rest. The two could possibly have the skill to take part in the Prodigy Challenge.

"Yeah? What do you need?" Ashura said politely. Latias snuggled closer to him, slightly tense by the conversation.

The boy and girl glanced at each other as the boy replied, "My name is Daniel. The girl next to me is Artemis. We thought that you were one of the only few people worth our time here. Were you sponsored? All of the people directly invited by Goodshow are crap"

Ashura grinned, maybe these two would be good friends. "You would indeed be correct. My name is Ashura. I was sponsored by Scott. What about you two?" Ashura inquired, sticking to his story he made while back in Altomare.

Artemis replied, "I was sponsored by Cynthia. Dewfuss here was sponsored by Lance, which I have no idea why."

Daniel pouted at the girl's words, "Hey, I earned that sponsorship fair and square! Meanie"

Ashura laughed as Artemis stuck her tongue out at Daniel. Yes, they would be good friends. "You two are the only one's I've seen so far that aren't practically worthless. Friends?" Ashura extended his hand.

The two nodded and shook Ashura's hand. "Friends." the two replied.

Ashura nodded and then grinned mischievously, "So, you two together?"

Ashura wanted to burst out laughing again as Daniel snickered and Artemis's mouth dropped open, shocked. "Of course not! We're just good friends. We would go insane if we were together."

Daniel, finished snickering, nodded, "Yeah, Artemis is right. We would go insane if we were together." He pointed to Latias, "Is that your girlfriend?"

Ash nodded as he kissed his mate's hair. "Yes she is. Her name's Lily."

_"Why did you call me that?" _Latias inquired as Daniel and Artemis replied their congrats.

_"Because every time we wake up together, you smell like lilies." _Ashura responded.

Latias blushed from his compliment, but she could not reply as Mr. Goodshow walked out onto the stage. As all eyes turned onto the old man, Ashura could feel himself starting to shake in rage. The man before him was the reason that his mom as dead, that he was a convicted criminal in the Five Regions, that he lost all of his friends except Max and maybe Brock.

"You will get your due, Goodshow," Ash vowed as Mr. Goodshow began to speak.

"Welcome, all, to the Top 128 Competition. The best of the best have gathered today to fight for the title of Pokemon Master!" Ash, Daniel, and Artemis snorted at the man's statement. Almost everyone else here besides them were crap.

"We have contestants from all across the Five Regions here for this very special event. Because of this, it had been decided that we host many activities over the next two weeks before the tournament proper, in order build a bigger sense of community among ourselves. The first of three events will start two days from now. It will be our very own Pokemon Contest!" Excited whispers flowed through the crowd at the news.

"If you want to participate, registrations will be allowed until tomorrow afternoon at 3pm. I wish everyone of you that participates good luck."

"In addition to the activities, in order to promote a sense of sociability among our contestants as well as make the upcoming tournament more exciting, it has been decided that over the next two weeks, each one of you will be assigned a partner. You will train with this partner and get to know them over the next few weeks. It is our hope that this fosters communication and lasting friendships."

"If one does not wish to do anything with their teammates, that is up to you. I must warn you though, that the first round of the tournament will be double battles, and your partner in the double battle will be the same partner you were assigned." Even more whispers spread throughout the crowd. This was intriguing.

"Now with all that said and done, please look inside your registration materials. Inside it, you have been given both a name and a number. The name is the name of your assigned partner, and the number specifies what field you will meet your partner for the first time. All training times must be decided upon between the two partners. Now, I bare you a fond farewell. Good luck!" Goodshow finished.

The three new friends sighed as they reached inside their registration packets to find their partners.

"Damn, why did Goodshow have to pull this? Now I have to spend two weeks with a crappy trainer!" Daniel moaned.

"I agree with Daniel. This is not right, making our tournament standing based on not just ourselves. What if our teammate refuses to work with us? It would drag us down too." Ashura replied.

"Although the reasons for this are admirable, they completely went about doing it with the wrong method. It sucks, although we can't do anything about it. Whose your partner, Daniel?" Artemis inquired.

Daniel glanced at the sheet of paper and shrugged, "Some guy named Satoshi Tajiri. Never heard of him. What about you, Artemis? Who did you get?"

"Some guy named Paul Shinji" Artemis frowned.

"I've heard of him. He's a real piece of work. All he cares about is power, and is willing to injure his pokemon to achieve it" Ashura said.

Artemis scowled at Ashura's words, "Damn it. I had to get someone like him. Oh well, by your description, he sounds like we'll crush our opponents without much work. I'm glad about that. What about you Ashura?"

Ashura looked down at his paper. As he took in the name, his heart stopped. No way, no way that this could be a coincidence. Arceus must really have it out for him.

Both Daniel and Artemis glanced at each other in surprise when they saw Ashura freeze. Without a word, he handed the paper to the two and covered his face with his hands, trembling in shock.

"I've never heard of him. Why is he acting like this?" Artemis asked Latias.

Latias rubbed Ashura's back, trying to calm him down. "He has a... history with him and his friends."

Ashura paid no attention to the three. All that his mind could think, all that his mind could register, was that his partner, the person he would spend the next two weeks with, was Max Maple.

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed this chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

How about that cliffhanger? I wanted to end this chapter with a bang, and there it is. Ashura has been paired with Max, which forces him to confront his friends very early in the game. What will happen because of this change in fate?

Ashura has made two new friends, both OC's of my own creation. Hope you liked their debut.

This chapter took me only two hours. I'm proud of myself for getting this done.

Next chapter has some long awaited confrontations!

I'll probably work on either _Blessed By Victory _or my upcoming Transformers story next. Just a heads up.

That's all. See you later!

Primordial Soul


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: **Hey, it's Primordial Soul with the fifth chapter of _The Altomare Ace._

I'm on a roll with this story since I have been in the mood for it. Three chapters in a row? Awesome! I really enjoy writing this story and especially appreciate you guys reading and reviewing.

Three days till school starts, which means a lot less updates for you guys. I'll try to fit them in, but my schedule is going to get hectic. Next update to my stories will be _Blessed By Victory_, no matter what. I've been slightly neglecting that story.

I've just realized that I've been ignoring Pikachu/Rotom! I feel so bad for Ashura's first pokemon. He'll appear in this chapter.

This chapter is a bit shorter than my previous ones. Hope that doesn't matter.

Story time. Ashura, Max and co deal with the repercussions of the choosing ceremony, and confrontations arise between old, current, and new friends!

**SneakyDevil: **No, this will not go M. There may be lime, but no lemons or obvious M material.

**Azure-flame-sky: **I don't know about any pokemon romance. I'll think about it. And regarding romance with Brock or Max... I plead the 5th! XD

**Swagnilla-Ice-1985- **Thanks for the offer! I might need some later on in the story.

**AnightmaresDreamscape- **Thanks for the idea, but no lemons will be present whatsoever. Don't know how to write them and don't plan to.

**Alpha B.A. 7- **Yeah, in this story, a lot of stuff can be done with aura. I really can't say anything about Ash's old pokemon, I'm under a non-disclosure agreement right now. I'm glad you like _The Lord of Revenge. _That story is currently last on my update list and considering school is starting, I might not work on in for a while. However, my plan is one chapter of _Blessed_, another chapter of _Ace_, and then a chapter of _Lord _if I manage to plan it out by then.

That's it. I hope you enjoy this chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

"Talk"- Regular Speech

"_Talk"-_ Telepathy

DISCLAIMER- I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT APPEARS IN THIS STORY!

Deep inside the sea of noise, a small island of silence existed. Ashura's mind was frozen, incapable of comprehending anything besides the one fact that he was partnered with one of his old friends, and that he would constantly see them over the next two weeks.

Why did fate toy with him so much? First, ruin his life after years of service, then mess with it again after he had rebuilt a better one? Ashura could not for the life of him understand why Arceus deemed all of this necessary? What was his angle?

Small, petite hands rubbed Ashura's back, instantly calming him back into a semi-normal state. He turned his head and smiled at his mate, thankful for her actions in calming him down. Ashura turned back to face Daniel and Artemis, both who were extremely confused over his actions.

"What went on between me and my battle partner is a very long, unbelievable story that we don't have time to get into because I have to meet them within the hour. Suffice to say, the guy's "friends" did something terrible to me a while back." Ashura told his two newfound friends.

Artemis waved her hand at him and said dismissively, "Don't worry about it. Your actions clearly determine that something happened between the two of you. We won't push until you're ready, right Daniel?" Her eyes narrowed as she turned to her boy companion.

Daniel nodded quickly, not wanting to face her ire. "Crystal, ma'am"

Ashura smiled, grateful at their forgiveness. "Thanks, I really appreciate this. Now, I have to prepare for this encounter. You guys can come, since Artemis's partner will be there as well."

The two nodded in acceptance, and followed Ashura out into the forest. When they were alone, Ashura turned to them and said, "Alright, Lily and I need to discuss somethings. I'll leave my Rotom with you so that I can find you when we need to go," Ashura raised his hand to let his starter out.

Artemis and Daniel watched in awe as the Rotom came out of the crystal in Ashura's left glove. The Rotom then abruptly flew over to Ashura and whacked him on the head.

_"ASHURA KNIGHT, HOW DARE YOU KEEP IN THAT CRYSTAL FOR THAT LONG! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HATE STAYING COOPED UP INSIDE SOMETHING, EVEN IF THE CRYSTAL IS BETTER THAN A DAMN POKE BALL! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!" _The Rotom then let out a deep breath and turned to Lily, who was trying to contain her laughter at her mate's expense. _"It's very nice to be able to talk to you again."_

Artemis and Daniel burst out laughing as Ashura got to his feet, grumbling under his breath. He glared at the Rotom for several seconds, then turned and walked away, Lily happily skipping besides him.

"What the hell was that?" Daniel asked the Rotom after getting his laughter under control.

_"I hate being contained inside something, have been ever since we met. I did not enjoy being trapped in that crystal for hours on end when I could just fly around invisible. At least the crystal is better than a poke ball."_

Artemis looked up at the Rotom and asked, "How long have you two been together anyway?"

Rotom shrugged, "_Almost nine years. I was his starter. We were a lot different back then."_

She blinked at the information, "He had you for a starter? Lucky?"

The pokemon laughed at her statement, _"We did not get along at first. Hell, I shocked him every time he tried to touch me. However, we warmed up pretty soon afterwards. We've been like brothers."_

"How did you warm up to him?" Daniel inquired.

The Rotom turned to him, eyes narrowed. _"Despite how nice you may be, Ashura has not known you for that long. He will not tell you much personal stuff until you three are more secure in your friendship."_

The two humans looked at each other and frowned, "Those friends you were talking about must of sure done something bad to him," Artemis said.

Rotom nodded in agreement, _"They did something terrible to him, something that he has never really recovered from, even with time and Lily's help. He used to be so outgoing and enthusiastic, now he is more closed off, unwilling to open up like he used to. You need to prove yourself good friends before he'll act like his normal self."_

Artemis and Daniel took in the pokemon's words. Here was a man who had his friends do something so terrible to him that it changed his character completely.

"And this battle partner of his is a friend of those friends?" Daniel remarked.

"Well, his battle partner is one of the only one's Ashura believes still is his friends. He's angry because he didn't want to deal with them this early in the tournament."

Daniel nodded, accepting the answer. A few seconds of silence passed before Artemis spoke up, "Well, since we're waiting for an hour, why don't we talk about something more productive. How good is Ashura at battling?"

The two jumped in surprise when Rotom flashed the biggest grin he could manage. They couldn't help but shiver at the sight. This was not going to be good for them.

_"Oh, you have no idea!" _he replied mischievously

* * *

An hour later, we find the group standing near the forest edge, watching the group of traitors waiting for Ashura. Artemis and Daniel look at the group with distaste. From what little they heard of them, they were not nice people who did something terrible to Ashura. The same man who was supposedly a prodigy in battle. The two could hardly believe the few tales that Ashura's starter had told them. Beating the Battle Frontier at 14? Winning the Orange League at 10? They could not imagine how could Ashura could be now if he did all of those things so young.

Rotom, Ashura and Lily looked upon them with hatred. These... animals ditched Ashura after so many years of friendship at the slightest change of his fortune. They deserved what was coming to them as the tournament progressed.

"Are you ready for this, Ash?" Lily asked softly, looking at her mate's lovely face. She was extremely worried for him. This was not going to be pretty.

"Yeah, we've discussed what we're going to do. There's no point prolonging this. Artemis, Daniel? Let's go."

As the four approached the group, they could feel the winds of fate blowing.

"Come on, where is this guy? He must be as bad as the shrimp if he's this late!" Gary proclaimed as they were waiting for Max's battle partner to appear. Gary had already met with his partner and worked out their plan.

"He still has three minutes, give him time." Brock countered, angered at Gary's insensitivity. The years without Ash were finally starting to get to me.

"I hope he shows up soon, I still have to meet my partner. What's his name, kid?" Paul said.

"His name is Ashura Knight" Max replied, anxious of the meeting. What was his partner going to be like? Hard and cold, or soft and warm? Would he be willing to work with a kid like him? Would he be like Ash? The similarity of the names did not escape his notice.

"Hey, someone's coming over!" May yelled.

The rest of the group turned to see a group of four approach them. One boy had short brown hair and dark blue eyes. He wore khaki cargo pants, a plain dark blue shirt, and fingerless gloves. The girl next to him was, to Max, simply beautiful. She had neck long silver hair and green eyes. She wore white capri pants, a white shirt with a sea green vest over it. The two of them had an aura of experience, and Max was not looking forward to battling them in the tournament.

They, however, didn't hold a flicker to the other two members of the group. The man leading them simply oozed power, and you had to be a fool not to notice it. He had raven-colored spiky hair that covered the top of his head. He wore a black undershirt with a opened white jacket with three dark red triangles; one on each sleeve and one on the very front of the jacket. He wore dark blue jeans that fit his figure very well. He looked a bit like Ash, Max notice bitterly.

Holding his arm was an equally beautiful woman, obviously his girlfriend. She had long, straight red hair that reached down to her waist. She had deep amber eyes, and she had a very shapely body that was the same shade as Ashura's. She wore a long, flowing white dress as well as a small blue triangle pendant around her neck.

Max snickered as he saw all of the girl's drooling at the sight of the man and all of the boy's drooling at the sight of the woman. It was so funny that they didn't realize that the two were already taken by each other. His 'friends' really were idiots! At least Brock didn't charge her like he used to.

"Excuse me," the man asked, bringing the gang back to attention. "I was wondering if you knew a Max Maple. I supposed to talk to him"

"I'm Max," he said hopefully. Was this man really his partner?

The man smiled and kneeled down to look him in the eye. "My name is Ashura Knight. I am you're partner for the next two weeks."

Max smiled widely. He couldn't believe his luck! He just got paired with the strongest trainer he had seen! Yes!

"I am eager to start preparing sir!" Max said, excited for the next two weeks.

The man frowned and looked around. "I haven't agreed to anything yet."

Max's smile slowly faded. Crap, he should of known there was a catch.

"What do you want?" Max asked.

Ashura shrugged, glancing at Artemis and Paul briefly conversing. "What can you offer me?"

Max frowned, struggling to come up with a reason for Ashura to take him in. What could he offer the veteran. He obviously couldn't offer skills or battle tips, the difference in power between them was too great. He couldn't offer money or physical compensation, he probably had enough of that? What could he offer him in this one-sided relationship? The answer came to him as he thought of what Ash was to him.

"An opportunity to teach someone." Max stated. Every one wanted to pass on their knowledge to the next generation. Hopefully Ashura was wise enough to agree.

Ashura smiled at his answer. "Very wise. Good answer. All right, I'll play along. Under some circumstances."

Max's smile returned with even greater force. Yes! Mentorship from a master! That was worth any sort of circumstances.

"Like?"

"You may not tell or teach anyone anything I tell you. This arrangement is not official, so it will terminate unless I decide otherwise. No one may watch us train. You will follow my schedule and my rules at all times. Anything else I'll describe later. Understand?"

Max nodded eagerly. "Yes, sir!"

Ashura opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted when, "Hey, you can't do that! We can watch and do what ever we want to!" Gary proclaimed.

The other three members of the group stiffened and turned to face the confrontation. And things were going so well.

"He is currently my student, and you have no right to basis your accusations on." Ashura replied quietly. Lily quickly snuggled up against him, trying to keep him calm.

"So what? We're his friends and guardians. We are to watch him at all times and we dictate what he can and cannot do! His parents allowed us to do this. You have no right!"

Dainel snorted. "No one can give the authority to have people take temporary absolute guardianship. Only the parents themselves can make decisions like that regarding their child. Even so, the child is able to make decisions himself. Max had made his. Deal with it."

Gary's face turned beet red as May responded, "Well, I'm her sister, and he's not allowed to do this. There. Plain and simple." Max shook in rage at his 'friends'. What the hell?

"You're not his parent, so no authority. Shut up now." Artemis replied dryly.

"No, this is unacceptable. Max will only do what we allow him to do and we can do whatever we want to. You, me, battle now!" Gary yelled, pointing at Ashura.

Every one fell quiet at the accusation, and silence reigned over the next couple seconds.

"Fine, I win, you drop this ridiculousness. I lose, the mentorship is terminated. Two versus two, no substitutions, right now. Deal?" Ashura asked.

"Deal. Brock, you judge. This won't take long." Gary proclaimed pompously as he walked to the other side of the field.

"Indeed it won't," Ashura whispered quietly as he took his position. He activated his Battle Arc and selected a pokemon. Yes, it would get the job done quite nicely.

Max intensely watched the two prepare to battle. Max already knew that Ashura was going to trounce Gary. However, he was curious to see how his mentor battled.

Brock began to speak "All right, this is a battle with Gary Oak of Pallet Town challenging Ashura Knight from..." He looked over at Ashura, confused.

"Altomare" Ashura replied tersely.

Brock nodded and continued, "Ashura Knight from Altomare. This will be a two versus two, no substitutions. Begin!"

"Blastoise, come on out!" Gary yelled, throwing its poke ball. The giant blue turtle soon appeared and prepared to fight what ever pokemon sent out.

Ashura sighed as he lifted his Battle Arc strapped to his left wrist. Of course he would go with his starter.

"Froslass, please indulge this boy," Ashura asked, releasing the Snow Land Pokemon. After it appeared, Froslass looked at the Blastoise and slumped. Why was her master battling this nobody?

"Blastoise, finish it off with Hydro Pump!" Gary yelled.

As the turtle fired a highly compressed rod of water, Ashura sighed at the sight of his former rival's foolishness. Oh well, he never wanted to waste his time with this.

"Froslass, Ice Shard,"

Froslass lifted its arms as an ice shard formed in between them. She fired it as the Hydro Pump drew close. As the two projectiles met, the Ice shard punched threw the Hydro Pump and nailed Blastoise right in the face. Gary and the gang watched in shock as Blastoise clutched its injured face.

Ashura sighed yet again. He felt bad for the turtle. "Froslass, finish it."

Froslass nodded and formed a dark orb in its hands. She fired the Ominous Wind at the downed turtle. It was sent flying when the orb connected, causing the turtle to faint.

Gary's mouth was wide open as Brock called Blastoise out. He returned his starter and released his Electvire. Maybe it would take that blasted Froslass out.

"Electvire, Thunder!"

Electvire fired the bolt of lightning as Ashura called out, "Redirect it"

Froslass nodded as she quickly created an Ice Shard and held it in front of her. As the lightning hit the block of ice in front of her, it bounced of straight back towards Electvire, who barely countered with a protect.

Gary swore at his misfortune. He needed to do something before he was utterly humiliated. "Electvire, Iron Tail now!" Gary yelled. Froslass was week to Steel attacks.

Electvire charged the Snow Land pokemon, tails glowing. As it swung its tails, Froslass turned intangible, allowing the tails to pass right through her. She turned tangible again after the attack finished and grabbed Electvire. It began to struggle, trying to get Froslass to let go. However, it was too late, as Froslass quickly flash froze Electvire.

As she moved away, Brock said, "Electvire is unable to battle. Ashura Knight wins the match."

"What! How is my pokemon out! It's only frozen!" Gary yelled.

"Froslass are known for turning their prey into pure ice. I taught Froslass how to control it so she can critically freeze things without an attack. She can freeze pokemon severely without killing them at will. Your Electvire will not be unfrozen naturally for several hours. I could attack your pokemon more, but that would be unnecessary. You are unable to win." Ashura replied.

He walked away from the field and a shocked Gary to where the audience was sitting. Everyone was shocked at what had just occurred. Ashura had just trashed Gary without even getting hit once. The gang could not believe their eyes, especially Misty. The group had faint smiles cause they knew it would of ended like this.

Ashura walked up to Max and held out his hand. "Now that all of the distractions are out of the way, are you ready to take your first step into a larger world."

Max, in awe of his mentor, quickly accepted the handshake. "Most definitely, sir. Most definitely."

Ashura smiled and gestured to the nearby forest. The group began to walk away before Max stopped and asked, "Can Brock come with us? He's a doctor, a good one, and he could learn some things as well"

The group looked at Ashura, who was deep in thought over Max's words. Seconds passed before he came to a conclusion. "He can, but he is under the same rules you are. Understood?"

Max nodded, "Yes, sir!" Max motioned for Brock to follow.

As the six walked into the forest, little did anyone realize that sides had been made. Fate had decreed who would be saved and who would be damned. Now it was only a matter of time before Fate received its just reward.

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed this chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

Max and Brock are now in Ashura's presence! How long can Ashura keep his identity secret? When will answers be revealed? Why don't you just wait and see?

Sorry about the one sided battle. Gary was not suspecting that much talent and Ashura is just awesome like that. Also, I was not planning on having it, it just demanded to be written.

I've always thought Ghost pokemon could turn intangible when ever they want to, causing physical attacks to pass right through them, but leave the ghost unable to attack physically. That is the case in this story.

Like I said above, updates are going to get a lot more sparse considering school is starting up. I'll do what I can, but no promises.

Next chapter is talking and training. Contest is coming soonish. I've got plans for it and the events afterwards. You guys are going to love what I've got in store. XD

I have a question for you readers. Which story of mine do you like the best? _Blessed, Ace, _or _Lord?_ Answer on my profile poll please.

I think that's it. See you later!

Primordial Soul


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: **Hey, its Primordial Soul with the sixth chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

I'm so sorry for the wait! School reared its ugly face (aka Constitution Project plus ten tests in two weeks) and has required my full attention. I've recently tamed it and I don't know how long it will stay caged. I've also had no inspiration or inclination to write because I recently had a minor car accident among other things. Since I want to actually get something out there for you guys to read, I decided to get this chapter out today.

I've started a story called _Sterling Silver _a couple weeks back_. _It's in the Transformers Movie section. I really like the idea, and I'm sad at the little amount of attention it's getting. Go read and review it!

I've also started a story called _Avis Blade _a week ago. It's a Harry Potter/Transformer Movieverse story. Go check it out!

I've have also started writing a Mass Effect/Halo Crossover called _For Thy Mantle._ I've got some ideas on where it's going, but they still need to be refined.

My muse and excitement for _Blessed By Victory _has been extinguished for some time. Because of school and my lack of interest in it, I am putting _Blessed _on hiatus. I'll go back to it if I regain the interest for it. Sorry, guys.

WARNING, I'm about to rant at a certain flame reviewer. If you look at the reviews, you'll know who. Please skip this if you don't want to see this.

RANT BEGINNING

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To my dear flamer, I need to set the record straight. First, you didn't even read the story to get your stupid facts straight. I completely explained why Ashura is so much better than anyone else. It's because he spent 4 YEARS constantly training so he could get stronger. Plus, his pokemon were no longer getting fucking POISONED by the corrupt league. Secondly, the power reference was both a figure of speech and an indication that Ashura has aura, both metaphorically and literally. Thirdly, before you claim that I used something someone else used first, give me the name of just TWO stories out of the many thousand there are that uses the corrupt league idea! Four, winning the Royal Line was NOT an easy victory for Ash, he spent THREE YEARS training for that! I just hadn't shown it to you readers. Five, why the fuck are you calling this bestiality? There are many other stories with the same or even more descriptive actions between Ash and a pokemon. I'm not even going to GO there! Most importantly, you criticize and defile my story with your noxious words and leave out any single hint of ways I can improve my story. I hold my writing in very high regard as it is my only creative outlet. I will not tolerate attacks on it. I despise readers like you. Don't like my story, don't read it. Don't flame it to death and disgrace us with your presence! Get out of my sight!

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RANT ENDING

Sigh, sorry for that readers. I was really pissed when I read that review. I do not tolerate attacks on my writing. Had to get that out of my system.

**Alpha. B. 7: **It is unfair to TLOR. I just wanted to see who liked what currently.

**Crescita: **I'm actually trying to instil a small sense of mystery into this. Glad you like it.

**Alaska: **Thanks!

This is primarily a filler chapter that deals with character relationships.

I believe that's it. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

"Talk"- regular speech

"_Talk"- _Telepathy

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!

As the group walked in the forest, Max could barely stop himself from whooping in joy. He had the best trainer he had ever seen for a mentor and for two weeks at that! This was a chance for Max to improve drastically and give himself a real shot for going far in the tournament. Max vowed that he would not let Ashura down.

Deep in the back of his mind, Max wished that Ash was the one here at the tournament and the one teaching him these things. The similarities between Ashura and Ash rubbed a wound still raw. But Max threw those thoughts out of his mind. Ash has been gone for four years and was never coming back.

Max emerged from his thoughts when the group arrived in a large clearing filled with supplies, obviously where Ashura was spending his nights. It looked fairly plain and ordinary, which surprised Max a bit. He thought that an epic trainer like him would have something more substantial.

Ashura, holding his girlfriend, turned away from Max and Brock and said to the other two people in their group, "Why don't you guys get your stuff and move here? I'll get these two settled in before we start." The two nodded and left.

Ashura turned to Max and Brock and replied, "Well, why don't we get some food and sit down to talk about ourselves and the next two weeks."

Brock nodded and replied, "Why don't I start cooking something up with your beautiful girlfriend while you two start discussing?" Lily blushed from the compliment.

Ashura nodded and motioned Max away to a set of tables and chairs while Brock and Lilybegan to cook on a nearby grill. "All right, Max, I'm going to be your mentor for the next two weeks. Under the new Mentorship Act passed two years ago, it is required..."

"Wait, what do you mean by Mentorship Act?" Max asked. He had never heard of such a thing.

Ashura sighed, "Damn it, I forgot that the Five Regions aren't on the same system. Looks like I have to give you the quick rundown on how we foreigners do things."

"Wait, you're foreign? I though Altomare was part of the League?"

"It was till the League kicked it out due to some thing or other. Now, stop interrupting, or we will never get done." Max rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Now, mentorship is an established practice outside of the five regions. It is essentially when a recognized Elite Trainer, Master, or Royal takes an apprentice to train and help grow. Now, the first part of mentorship..."

"Wait, I'm lost. There's different classifications of trainers outside the Five Regions?" Max asked.

Ashura growled in annoyance. He had forgotten how inquisitive Max was. "Yes, there is. Instead of a Gym and League system, we have a testing system. To advance ranks, you have to go to a major city and test for a rank increase. There are beginners, journeymen, adventurers, knights, and then challengers for regular ranks. Every rank increase allows you to enter more tournaments. Once you reach challenger, you are allowed to compete in the Prodigy Challenge, the major tournament for regulars."

Max's mind went over the information Ashura had given him. This system seemed a lot more well, convenient for the trainers. They didn't have to spend their time traveling away from home just to head to a Gym. If they wanted to, they could stay at home, focus on training, and rank up at their pace. Although true trainers would leave for a journey to capture pokemon and gain experience, it seemed much safer for the non-competitive trainers.

"Could you describe the Prodigy Challenge? It sounds intense." Max inquired.

Ashura suddenly sported a wicked grin on his face, scaring Max immensely. "Oh, you have no idea. The Prodigy Challenge takes place every four years in different places around the globe. It's aired everywhere except the Five Regions, who are on their own system and don't want to promote an external event. Competitors are carefully and secretly screened from the challenger ranks in form a core group of 256 trainers that fight for the title."

Max's jaw dropped in shock. "Only 256 trainers from around the world! That must be brutal and amazing! I wish that I could of seen it."

Ashura chuckled, "Indeed, the contestants are brutal and the tournament's layout makes it even more brutal. I have videos of old Challenges. If you're still my apprentice after this tournament, I'll show them to you. It is literally the hardest thing you could ever do, besides the Royal Line of course"

Max turned his head, curious over Ashura's statement. "Royal Line? You mean there is something harder than the Prodigy Challenge?"

Ashura nodded, "If you win the Prodigy Challenge, you can take on the Royal Line, which is composed of all previous winners of the Challenge. If you win against all of them, you become the greatest trainer in the world. If you lose to one of them, you take a place directly before them in the Royal Line."

Max was shocked. The foreigners were really much more intense then the League. "What about you? How good are you?"

Ashura shook his head, "I'm not going to go into that right now. I'll tell you later. Besides, Brock and Lily have finished the food, and we have a lot of work to do after we have eaten." Ashura got up to go eat.

Max nodded and followed Ashura to the table, where Brock and Lily were already seated.

Lily flashed Ashura a cheeky grin, "Ashura, I've had an interesting conversation with this man here. He apparently thinks I'm available for, oh what do you call it, perverted actions."

Brock paled instantly as Ashura growled and turned on him, fury in his eyes. He threw up his hands and replied, "I didn't do anything like that! Sure, I made some comments about her exceptional beauty, but I would never try to take some one else's girl no matter how jealous I am! You have to believe me!"

Ashura stared at Brock for several seconds, deciding his fate. He then suddenly smiled and asked Lily, "You pranked both of us, didn't you?"

Lily nodded, "Yup!" Everyone sighed and chuckled at the harmless (maybe not for Brock) prank she pulled.

Ashura stopped talking and ate a bit of soup. After swallowing, he began to say, "All right Max, I want to hear what your pokemon are, what you've done, what you're good at, and what you need improvement in."

Max put his spoon down and thought about what Ashura asked. "I use a Grovyle, a Gardevoir, a Mightyana, a Shuppet, a Swellow, and a Breloom as my main battle team. I've participated in the Hoenn League twice and the Kanto and Johto Leagues once. I reached top 16, top 8, top 32, and top 32 respectively. I'm good at being tenacious in my battles and having sheer luck on my side. To me, I rush into things too quickly and don't plan my battles out well."

Brock nodded his assent. "I agree. Max has obtain success mainly on his sheer determination and luck. He's just like our old friend."

An unwelcome silence spread over the group for a few seconds before Ashura spoke up, "All right, this knowledge helps a lot, but I need to test you myself. Please follow me."

Ashura began to lead the three to a nearby clearing so they could have a practice battle. While walking, Ashura asked his mate, _"Max is eerily similar to me when I was his age. What do you think?"_

Lily frowned, pondering her mate's question. _"I think he has a lot of potential that is buried under the League's corruption. He will improve greatly over the next couple weeks, but his improvement would be considered moderate by the outside world."_

_ "I thought as much. I think I just need to battle him using enough strength to prevent him from simply bull dozing through his opponents and actually get him to think." _Ashura paused, unsure how to proceed. _"What do you think of them? Do you think I could trust them again?"_

Lily said,_"I managed to talk with Brock about his prior experiences as a doctor. He clammed up when he talked about you, and seemed guilty about his actions. I would give him the benefit of the doubt, but I would make sure to get his reason why he betrayed you when you inevitably reveal yourself. Regarding Max, well, isn't a battle the truest test of one's character?"_

Ashura smiled_, "Indeed it is,"_

The group emerged into a clearing, perfect for a battle between Master and Apprentice. Ashura walked far away from the three and turned to face Max.

"This is a one on one initiation match. Release your pokemon and prepare for battle." Ashura ordered.

Max gulped. Here he was, fighting the big leagues. After hearing about the outside world, Max was not looking forward to the battle ahead. No matter. This was how he would learn.

"Go, Gardevoir!" Max yelled as his Embrace Pokemon took the field.

Ashura smiled at the choice Max had thrown out. It was in a good condition considering the poisons and odious substances the League pumped into the inhabiting Pokemon. Now, who to choose. He didn't want to give away his trump cards this early in the game, but surely this battle could suffice... Yes, he would show Max and Brock some of his trump Pokemon. After all, they were confidentially bound to not share anything.

Decision made, Ashura raised his left glove. A stream of blue particles emerged from the flat crystal embedded in it, shocking Brock and Max.

A second later, a menacing blue Gallade took the field, blades extended. It's body seemed to glow with an other worldly aura, and it was in perfect condition. It's red eyes narrowed in concentration, but strangely had an air of appreciation.

"Oh, sir, thank you for choosing me for facing such a fine beauty in front of me." Gallade said suggestively, shocking Brock and Max even more and earning a blush from the Gardevoir.

Ashura smiled and replied, "You're still a damn voyeur, Gallade. Anyway, this is an initiation battle, so go training difficulty."

Gallade nodded and crouched, "Yes, sir"

"Your Gallade can speak English! How!" Max exclaimed in shock. He had never seen another pokemon speak English besides that pesky Meowth.

"Long story that I don't feel like going into right now." Ashura replied dryly. "Now, you get the first move."

Max nodded and yelled, "Use Psychic!'

As Gardevoir fired a Psychic pulse at Gallade, Ashura sighed. Inexperienced and not thinking. A terrible combination.

Ashura didn't even need to order. Gallade simply leaned to the right, the Psychic blast passing right past him. He then snapped a Psycho Cut toward Gardevoir, who barely dodged it.

Max swore at his foolish maneuver. Did he really just try that? He needed some help. Now, what to do...

A flash of blue interrupted Max's thought process as he saw Gallade streak towards Gardevoir while her trainer was distracted, slashing her with Leaf Blade. As she staggered back, Gallade grabbed her and kicked her right leg out, dropping her to her knees. A swift knee to the face sent Gardevoir sprawling in front of her trainer.

Max was shocked. In his moment of inattention, Ashura's Gallade managed to do an immense amount of damage without a single order. This was really bad.

As Gallade approached the fallen Gardevoir, Max got a idea that would hopefully work. He wanted to at least HIT Ashura. "Attract!"

Gardevoir turned towards Gallade and winked her eyes, her beauty enhancing tremendously to Gallade. Gallade stopped and stared at Gardevoir, complete adoration forming in his eyes.

Max smirked, it worked. "Now, use Return!" Gardevoir started sprinting towards Gallade, intent on hitting the attracted Gallade. As she grew closer, Max began to frown as a bad feeling began infiltrating his mind. Why wasn't Ashura doing anything? It was as if...

Max's eyes bulged out as he yelled, "IT'S A TRAP!" Gardevoir panicked as she attempted to stop running, but it was too late.

Gallade's arm snaked out and grabbed Gardevoir, brining her into his arms as if they were dancing. As the two stared at each other, Gallade above Gardevoir, Gallade smirked and gently kissed her as he brought his left arm down to hit her with a Night Slash. Gardevoir slowly fell out of Gallade's hands, fainted, but with a blush and a smile on her face.

Ashura sighed at his pokemon's antics. "Gallade, did you really have to do all that? That seemed like some elaborate courtship dance."

Gallade smirked widely as he rubbed his blades together, sharpening them. "Who said it wasn't? She's worth it."

Max gaped at Gallade's words as Ashura face palmed. After removing his hand, he asked Brock, "Could you revive Gardevoir? Gallade seems really eager to meet her acquaintance off the battlefield, and Lily and I need to talk to Max about what just went on"

Brock nodded and grabbed a Max Revive as he approached the Embrace Pokemon. While he did that, Ashura and Lily approached Max.

"Do you know what you did wrong?" Ashura inquired, hoping Max learned something.

Max nodded, ashamed at his loss, but understanding its purpose. "I didn't form any plan at the start of the match, just did my usual blitzkrieg. I then took my attention off the battle, costing my pokemon. I then took a too big of a chance attacking after that Attract. I should of used Wish and boosted my stats and make a plan while you were supposedly under the Attract."

Lily nodded, "A fairly accurate assessment, but you're missing a key part of why you lost."

Max frowned, "What did I miss?"

"Your posture, your tactics, your pokemon, they were all incredibly rigid." Ashura said.

"Rigid? What's that?" Max asked.

"When something is rigid, it means it is resistant to change and flow. To be a great trainer, you must be able to change strategies, tactics and pokemon when it is necessary. You only have one general strategy, your pokemon aren't developed enough to reach their potential for flow, and your attitude prevents you from recognizing when to change tactics."

"What? My attitude is fine! I don't know what you mean!" Max yelled.

Ashura sighed and turned his head to look at Gallade and Gardevoir, who were quietly yet intensively talking. "You may think your attitude is fine, but subconsciously, you are arrogant in your ways and refuse to reach your flow potential. You need to get absolute proof about the necessity of flow before your subconscious can accept it flow and allow you to reach your full potential."

Max scowled, "Ah, come on! When will my subconscious change?"

"You'll never know. It just has to be something so important and so desperate that your subconscious accepts that it needs to flow. So, while we try to make situations that could make your subconscious accept flow, we can work on getting your pokemon up to snuff. But, you'll never reach your full potential if you don't change as well." Ashura said seriously.

Max gazed at his mentor, meeting his dark red eyes. Before him was a man who knew what he was doing. He had an awesome team, a beautiful girlfriend, and experience galore. If Ashura said this is what he had to do, he would do it.

"Whenever your ready, sir." Max said, ready to start learning how to "flow" from this... prodigy in front of him.

Ashura smiled at his apprentice's words. "Time to get to work"

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Far in the distance, a figure scowled at the performance that was performed before him. Goodshow had given him three names of contestants that Goodshow hadn't picked personally. Apparently, they were an unknown and Goodshow wanted him to make sure that they wouldn't be a problem. Before witnessing this battle, he had scoffed off the possible threat of these three trainers, thinking himself too good for the competition.

He was now very glad for actually listening to Goodshow.

He could just see the power rolling off the "mentor". His pokemon were in exquisite state, much too healthy to be a part of the League. The way he crushed Max Maple, one of the stronger contestants, so easily did not speak well for him if he continued down his arrogant path. He needed a much better game if all three of these trainers were like this.

With a silent motion, Tobias got up and began quickly running to civilization, intent on informing Goodshow that he was, unfortunately, right.

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed this chapter of _The Altomare Ace_.

It feels so good to be able to get a chapter out for this story. I've worked on this little by little for weeks.

Next story to be updated will be _The Lord of Revenge, _followed by _Ace _once again.

Up next, some training, plotting, and confrontations as the Contest approaches!

That's all. See you later!

Primordial Soul


	7. Chapter 7

**Update: **Had some small edits to do and a little trouble uploading it. There fixed now

**AN: **Hey, it's Primordial Soul with the seventh chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

Happy late Thanksgiving! I am so sorry about the very long wait. I really don't have any excuses for my lack of updates. The past month has been tough with a lot of work, Halo 4, and general laziness and procrastination. Since it has been a while since my last update on this story, it's time for a new chapter!

We're starting to get into one of the three major events of the story, which is the Contest. The Contest should be started by chapter 9 or 10. I'm really excited about what I have in store for you guys later on in the story.

This is a decent amount of back story, some character development and a lot of foreshadowing.

**PhoenixLyric**: Thanks for the compliments!

**RTMac1989: **Wait and see!

**Gigatron4671: **Crap, I keep forgetting him. He's in this chapter.

**PC: **Blitzkrieg is German for "Lighting War", which is the what the German military used in WW2 against Poland and France. It calls for speedy and overwhelming attacks in order to destroy your enemies quickly.

**Arrow Riddari: **IDK, ask the flamer.

**Dark Raku: **Wow, thank you for the time and commitment you put into your very informative review for my story. I applaud your devotion and effort towards trying to make my story better. Your advice is very helpful and would help tremendously in making my work better. However, this story was not meant to be the best it could. I'm writing this story for myself and for the audience's enjoyment.

Although the advice would help, I am following how the anime presents itself. Pokemon itself is a children's show, with pure good and pure evil without too much explanation of how or why. I wanted to capture that child-like quality despite the plot of the story. Although I will attempt to address why more and describe some things like you recommended, I probably will not completely follow your suggestions. I'm happy enough leaving the story how it is.

I'm sorry that this story currently doesn't hold your interest and that you probably won't continue to read it. Thanks once again for your comments.

**Alpha B.A.7: **Thank you!

**McCabeRz: **Well, they haven't been in a relationship for that long. They actually have been only in a relationship for one year instead of four. I'll get more into it later. And Latias is a virgin, she was just pulling Ashura's leg.

That's about it. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

I DON'T OWN ANYTHING!

* * *

"Is this information accurate?"

"Yes sir. The pokemon the subject used was in that good condition. There appeared to be no poison in the pokemon's systems. The trainers power and control were phenomenal for his apparent age and he is teaching and mentoring three other candidates to much higher levels than previously indicated. He is also very secretive and nobody knows anything about him, even the people closest to him"

Goodshow scowled as Tobias finished his report about the mysterious powerhouse he had witnessed practicing earlier that day. To say that he was annoyed would be an understatement. He had designed this tournament to be purposely easy, purposely weak in order for Tobias to win and take the prize money to the criminals that sponsored Goodshow and kept him in power. This method would solve all of their problems and would even have the audience's approval.

So why the hell was this trainer here messing everything up?

"Tell me everything you and the records know about him."

"His name is Ashura Knight, age..."

"Wait, his last name is Knight!?" Goodshow exclaimed in shock.

"Yes sir, his last name is … Oh. Yeah, that Knight" Tobias whispered in gradual understanding and shock. "It may be a coincidence sir."

Goodshow scoffed and replied, "Like I'd bet on that. I'll look into it and form a plan around that if Ashura proves more of an annoyance and this indeed proves accurate. Continue."

Tobias gulped and replied, "... age 19, born in Altomare. Considered to be both a Five Regions citizen and a world citizen due to Altomare's ambiguous legal state during the time he was born. He is known to be a very good trainer in the exterior world, although how good is unclear due to the information blockage you put in place when the League was created. His known pokemon only include a blue Gallade, a coloring that hasn't been seen before, a Frostlass and a Rotom."

Goodshow sighed and said, "Find out as much as you can about Ashura, the sooner the better. I will not allow this upstart to ruin all of my hard work. Dismissed."

Tobias nodded and left the room, leaving Goodshow to his thoughts. Thoughts about a certain black-haired teenager and what he planned to do about him. Goodshow would do what ever it took to get this dealing done. Even if it meant doing the unthinkable.

* * *

A little bit away from the discussion between Goodshow and Tobias, Max swore as his Breloom was taken down by Daniel. He had been training with Daniel and Artemis instead of Ashura because his mentor believed he wasn't ready to take him on even in practice. Max, after several hours training with the two older kids, reluctantly agreed that he was right.

"Damn it, I lost again!" Max said dejectedly as he returned his pokemon.

"Don't worry, you're improving a lot. " Daniel encouraged, returning his pokemon to its ball. "If you keep this rate of improvement up, you'll go far in this tournament."

Max, despite his pessimistic mood, couldn't help but agree with Daniel's statement. Over the past day since his massive blunder against Ashura, Max had been training non-stop. Yesterday, he was a blubbering idiot whose pokemon were not even close to the best shape they could be in to Max's shock. He had always thought his pokemon were in tip top condition. Now, he was still an idiot, but he was starting to make better strategic calls and his pokemon were slowly improving their condition. He still wasn't close to Daniel and Artemis's skill and don't even talk about reaching Ashura's level.

Artemis put her hand on Max's shoulder, sending a warm tingle through his body. She said, "Why don't we take a break? We have been going for a while now."

Max smiled and nodded in agreement with her suggestion. Despite the short time they had known each other, he had grown to enjoy her voice and touch. It made him feel confident and better in the face of countless defeats at the hand of his mentor.

The three trainers moved off the field and headed towards their makeshift camping ground. When they arrived, they noticed that Brock, Ashura, Lily, Ashura's Rotom and Gallade were sitting and talking about something they couldn't hear.

"Hey, guys" Daniel said flippantly and the talking group turned to face the new arrivals.

"Aren't you supposed to be training?" Ashura said, eyebrow raised. He did not look happy at Max's apparent abandonment of his training.

Max gulped in fright, but Artemis saved him, "We have been working for hours and our pokemon need a break. We're not at your caliber. You can't expect us to immediately jump into your routine."

Ashura was silent for a couple seconds, then he nodded in affirmation and responded, "Very well. Come sit and join our discussion" The three did so. "Brock, you can continue."

Brock nodded and said, "As I was saying, your pokemon and training styles are phenomenal. Each pokemon is the best they can be in their respective fields. How do you do it? Is it the food you feed them, the training, what do you do to make your pokemon in this good condition?"

Ashura shrugged and replied, "Short answer is blood, sweat, and tears. Long answer is something very long. Do you want to hear it?" Seeing everyone nod, Ashura continued. "Very well. I can't tell you much do due to the secrecy I have put on my training methods, but I can share a little. Back home, I have a special place full of training tools, staff, and technology built for improving my pokemon, all backed, built, and paid for by Artican Industries. That, along with state of the art training methods I designed as well as nutritionally rich foods I order from all over the world, help me make my pokemon great."

Max frowned and said, "That must take a lot of money. Where did you get all of it?"

Ashura smiled and replied, "My job, like every one else does."

"But no one can earn that much money! It's impossible!"

Ashura shook his head in disappointment. "Remember what I taught you, nothing is impossible, only improbable. With those words, you are keeping your flow from releasing."

Max hung his head down in shame, "Sorry, sir" He hated it when he disappointed his mentor.

Artemis spoke up, "Well, how do those methods fare?"

Gallade laughed, bringing everyone's attention on the Blade Pokemon. "I've never been more alive than when I am training with Ashura. He specializes every aspect of training to focus on you specifically. His training methods have helped me become one of Ashura's Prime Elites, his right hand if you will."

Daniel frowned, "Since we're all here, why not talk about ourselves? I'm most curious to hear some of Ashura's tales." Everyone else around murmured in consent.

"Is this really necessary?" Ashura asked, hoping that he wouldn't have to say anything.

"Yes, it is buster. We're dying from curiosity and eagerness about hearing something about your past. Why not tell us how you got Gallade here?" Artemis suggested in a tone that did not suggest any room for denial.

Ashura sighed and turned to his two released pokemon. "Should I, guys?"

Rotom shrugged, _"I've got no problem with you telling them that story. It's something not too personal and is interesting enough to satisfy their curiosity even if you censor a lot of it"_

Gallade smirked and replied, "Tell the story. I'm the star in it and it makes me look good."

Ashura shook his head in amusement at the Blade Pokemon's comment. "Of course you'd think only of the fame you'd get from me telling this story. All right, I'll tell it."

Every one cheered, pleased that they will finally hear something from the enigmatic Ashura's past. Of course, they would hopefully not know that it was carefully edited and censored so that his identity would not be revealed.

Ashura smiled at everyone's eagerness to hear a story from him, even one that was not very personal. Dare he say, it made his frozen heart... warm, which only Latias, his pokemon, and battling could ever do before.

"It's a long story, starting about three years ago." Ashura began, his words captivating his audience despite the edited nature of his story. "When I was younger, more eager to prove myself and was starting to develop the methods I use today, I was exploring the island chains surrounding Altomare...

* * *

_Flashback_

_ The sun was shining brightly, the water was moving in a gentle fashion, all was at peace except the sole boat sailing towards a small island in the distance. On board that boat stood a single teenager, one hardened by the world that betrayed him. He was Ash Ketchum, not to become Ashura Knight till some time in the future._

_ Ash stood on the bow of the ship in a simple black tee shirt and jeans, staring intently on the approaching island in the distance. He was cold, uncaring of the world that betrayed him. It had been six months since _**_that _**_day and he had only recently started to heal. He had a good support base that wouldn't leave him and had a new goal, a new dream. He would see it through, for it was all that he had left._

_ A soft coo brought Ash out of his thoughts and back to reality. He turned and smiled at the red and white dragon who returned the smile. Latias had joined him five months ago and it was the best thing that could ever happen to him. Sure, Lorenzo and Bianca were nice to be around, but Latias was just the rock he needed to prevent himself from doing something rash. He loved to be around her. She was trying to learn the English Language, but she had not gotten to far during the three months she had been at it._

_ Ash looked away from Latias to observe the rest of his pokemon he had. Sceptile was lying in the shade of the boat, taking a quick nap before they arrived at the island. Warturtle and Gible were wrestling over the last piece of pokemon food remaining. Glalie was floating next to Sceptile, finding it nice just to float and watch the fight. Latias was still in front of him, smiling. And there was Pikachu... no, Rotom now, floating up to Ash with concern on his face._

_ Guilt immediately flooded Ash's mind. It was his fault that Pikachu was like this. If he had only noticed it, this never would of happened. Despite his self guilt, he did take some small satisfaction that he still had his starter, albeit in a different form. That and he was much more powerful and faster in battle._

_ Ash cleared his throat to get his pokemon's attention. Once they all were focused on him and awake, he began to speak, "All right, we've trained hard and improved greatly since we started in Altomare six months ago. Now, it's time to explore these islands and find new friends to help us achieve our dream. Our path will be long, hard, and full of hardship. But I believe we will find our friends and become the best we can be. I believe that we will make the Prodigy Challenge once we have prepared. I believe that we will succeed."_

_ His pokemon cheered as Ash finished his mini speech. Smiling, he motioned the sailor to increase their speed. The island awaited them._

* * *

Every one around him held their breath, hanging on to every word that Ashura said. This was an amazing moment in time, one where they could see and literally feel the younger Ashura's presence.

"That was incredible." Max stated slowly, as he could hardly believe what he had just heard. "But that doesn't explain how you got Gallade here."

Ashura smiled and replied, "That was me setting up the scenario, Max. Be patient. Gallade will come in shortly."

"With a bang, I must say." Gallade said, eagerly awaiting to hear how he joined Ashura despite having lived through it.

The audience automatically tensed, unconsciously preparing themselves to hear a fantastic story, one that they probably will never hear from his mouth again.

"Now, once we arrived on the island..."

* * *

_Flashback_

_ Ash sighed as he leaned back, tired from the climb he and his pokemon had just finished. They had been on the island for over a day now and not many pokemon worthy of capturing had appeared. Sure, he had beaten a lot of wild pokemon with his own, but none held that spark Ash had always __looked for. After the first day exploring the forest, he had decided to venture to a more rocky region of the island, thinking that the pokemon here would be more valuable than the pokemon in the forest._

_ "Hey, Ash, you okay?" Rotom asked his trainer, concerned for Ash's endurance._

_ Ash laughed and replied, "I'm fine! Have to keep up with you, don't I?"_

_ Rotom smiled mischievously at his comment, "Oh, that's really shocking? I think you need some more energy." On that note, Rotom shocked Ash, causing him to yelp in pain._

_ "Rotom! You little..." Ash growled, although not angry with his starter._

_ Rotom started to laugh again, but stopped when noticed something behind Ash. "Rock slide!" Rotom yelled._

_ Every one paled and turned to face the rocks barreling down on them. Every one began running down a natural path in order to get away from the rocks. His pokemon quickly sped ahead of Ash, trying to outrun potential demise._

_ Ash could feel the adrenaline pumping through him as he sprinted. Strangely, he felt excited, exhilarated, happy with the feeling of fire running through his veins. This is when he felt truly alive._

_ Ash suddenly tripped over a moderately sized rock, sending rolling down the hill. His pokemon stopped and gasped as they saw their trainer fall and were unable to do anything to help Ash as the rocks closed in. _

_ Ash closed his eyes in dismay. After everything he has done and experienced, he's taken out this soon into his renewal? Why?_

_ A blur appeared in front of him and a glowing blue shield erupted in front of him. Ash's eyes widened in shock as the small pokemon in front of him protected him from the falling rocks._

_ Most of the rocks went by and others scraped the shield, causing the pokemon to stagger underneath the pressure. One moderately sized rock suddenly hit head the shield head on, redirecting it, but caused the shield to break and send the pokemon flying._

_ Ash stretched his hands and caught the small pokemon before it could fly too far. It saved him and Ash was damn well ready to repay it. He looked around to see that the avalanche stopped and his pokemon were crowding around him, anxious about his close demise._

_ "I'm fine, guys. Back off a little. I need to check up on this little guy." Ash asked. His pokemon backed away and Ash put the pokemon down to examine him further._

_ It was a Ralts. It had a white body and its legs give it the appearance of wearing a dress. Instead of the typical green helmet and red horns, it had a navy blue helmet and cyan horns. It was covered in cuts, bruises, and was obviously extremely fatigued, but Ash could immediately tell that it was a rare and powerful specimen of the species._

_ However, Ash didn't notice that as much as the large... energy that surrounded Ralts that was similar to the energy it had released when it had saved Ash. It was familiar, so familiar, but where..._

_ Ash's eyes widened as he recalled what the energy was. He had felt the same thing back at Cameron Palace and with the Riolu he had saved from Hunter J. It was able to use Aura!_

_ He could feel excitement and anticipation bubble in his veins. He couldn't believe this! He had never been able to expand his aura capabilities because it required an aura using pokemon to learn it with. To finally have an aura using pokemon in this good of condition... this was a miracle. Ash had to have it._

_ Ash saw the Ralts groan and sit up, rubbing its helmet trying to get rid of the killer headache it must have. It looked up and into Ash's eyes. They stared at each other and a sense of brotherhood and companionship filled their bodies. They knew they were destined to be together._

_ "Thank you, Ralts. You saved my life. How can I ever repay you?" Ash asked._

_ The Ralts blushed and pushed out its chest, Ash's compliment adding onto the pokemon's slightly vain personality. It then spoke to Ash in its native language and pointed at one of his poke balls, empathizing its point._

_ "You want to come with me. Why?" Ash said with barely concealed glee. This was simply __incredible._

_ Ralts slowly reached out and touched Ash. Ash suddenly felt Ralts' aura connect with his own. He felt Ralts send thoughts, feelings, emotions to him, and Ash understood. Ralts was all alone in the world. It knew it was special, it knew it was strong, it knew its place was not here. He wanted to understand and learn the power he was born with. Ash was the first person to have that power. Ash was someone he could relate with, someone he could learn with, someone who simply understood. Ash could make him the strongest he could ever be and be the brother he always lacked and Ash desperately wanted._

_ Ash's eyes filled with tears as he grabbed a poke ball and held it out to Ralts. "Thank you so much. We'll become the strongest trainers in the world, we'll become masters of Aura, we'll become the brothers we never had and always wanted."_

_ Ralts smiled once again as it touched the ball and allowed itself to be sucked in. A small ding recognized the first capture Ash had outside the Five Regions and the starting of the first relationship that would be precious to him for the rest of his life._

_ Ash turned to face the rest of his pokemon, each one's faces filled with glee at the events that just took place._

_ "All right, we've got a promise to keep" Ash said with conviction as he hefted Ralts' poke ball. "Let's get to work"_

* * *

As Ashura finished his tale, every one was in near tears. The story was full of conviction, self sacrifice, the beginning of brotherhood and friendship. It was simply incredible.

"Unbelievable..." Max uttered as he viewed Gallade in a new light. Gallade had to be one of Ash's strongest pokemon and one the closest to him. It made Max proud to have at least fought the Blade pokemon at least once.

"Yep, I'm that good." Gallade drawled out, causing the group to chuckle.

"Thank you for the story, Ashura. It was beautiful." Artemis said. It really overdid her expectations.

Ashura smiled, "Thank you for the compliments." Ashura got up and motioned for Lily and his pokemon to follow. "I'm going to do some last minute training before dinner. Have fun." On that note, Ash, Lily, Rotom, and Gallade left into the forest.

"Damn, that story was epic." Brock softly said as Ashura disappeared into the forest. "I wonder what else he has stored in his life."

"I'm curious too, but I'm satisfied with what we got. Ashura is a very secretive and cold person, and even that personal story probably took a lot of effort for him to say" Artemis said, understanding how hard it was for Ashura to share his past."

"Yeah..." Max began. "What he did though reminded me of what Ash would do in that situation."

"Ashura really does remind you of Ash doesn't he?" Brock questioned.

"Yes, he does. But he couldn't be. Ash is probably dead or long gone from here. He would never foot back in the Five Regions. My thoughts are simply wishes that will never come true" Max stated firmly, although the doubt remained in his heart. They were similar...

Behind them, Daniel frowned as he absorbed the information given. Unlike the others, Daniel had family living outside the Five Regions... and that story sounded awfully familiar to one his brother said about an apprentice of his. But his brother only took one apprentice and that was ...

Daniel almost burst out laughing in shock as the truth set in. No, it couldn't be! It was too incredible, too unbelievable to think! But if it was true... then this tournament just got exponentially more exciting and important. Didn't the League realized who one of their contestants was?

Realizing his location, Daniel quickly looked around to see if anyone noticed his outburst. He sighed in relief when he found out that no one did.

Quickly, he shoved the thoughts he had been thinking deep into his brain, storing them for later.

After all, he wouldn't want to expose the Prince of Champions before he got a chance to talk to him, wouldn't he?

* * *

A fair distance away, Ashura, Lily, and Ash's pokemon stopped to converse quietly.

"Did I do good?" Ashura questioned, anxious about the possibility of his identity being revealed.

Lily smiled and kissed Ashura. "Of course you did. Everything important and personal was censored. Nobody would have any hint that you were Ash Ketchum."

Ashura sighed in relief, "That's good. I'm not ready to reveal myself yet."

Gallade smirked, "But at least it showed my awesomeness."

Rotom rolled his eyes, _"Or your vain personality." _

Everyone laughed at his remarks. Ashura turned and started walking away with Lily. "We're going on a flight. Pretend that we're training."

The two Pokemon smirked. "With pleasure, Master." The two began to spar, aura and lighting beginning to fill the arena as the two pokemon began to fight.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Ambitious and eager, aren't they?"

Ashura smirked and stared at her, "Not the only ones, I hope?"

"Oh, definitely not"

The two morphed into their Lati forms and took off into the sky, darting and playing with one another as mates should. It had been an exhausting day in more ways than one and they were all too eager to escape together from it.

* * *

Far away, May growled as she paced their campsite, thinking about what that slut was teaching her brother. Couldn't Max see that his isolation, his restrictions, their strictness was to protect him? They had made the mistake with Ash, they would not let Max fall as well.

"That's it, I'm going to get Max and drag him away from his _mentor _kicking and screaming if necessary." May said with conviction.

Behind her, Dawn and Mistry nodded in consent. "We'll help too."

May nodded in appreciation as they set out, ready to save their brother and destroy that pesky Ashura. Little did they know that they were sealing their own fates.

And so the first of many finally began to reap what they sowed.

* * *

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed this chapter of _The Altomare Ace__!_

Next thing I work on will probably be _Lord _or _Mantle. _But who knows? Chapter 8 may come sooner than you think.

Three weeks until exams, so after the next one or two updates to my various works, I will be busy studying and taking exams. However, once they are over, I'll be able to work for a full two weeks without delay. If I don't get distracted or lazy however. ;P

That's it I think. See you later!

Primordial Soul


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: **Hey, it's Primordial Soul with the eighth chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

I'm so sorry about the long wait. I got absorbed in _the Lord of Revenge _and _For Thy Mantle. _Still kinda am, in fact. Plus, January was brutal with three weeks of preparation for a college interview. School then piled a bunch of work on me and is still slowing my writing down. I'll try and be a little better.

Contest will be soon, like in 1-2 chapters.

The battle was completely improv. Tell me what you think of it.

* * *

**Good news!** I'm in the process of thawing _Blessed By Victory _and putting in back on active status. I think I'm ready to go back to it and at least get to the end of Kanto. Stay tuned!

* * *

**Review Responses:**

**silvershadow77; D.P. Master01; RTMac1989: **Thanks!

**Organ Man: **Oh, I do plan on to eventually. I'm already reading this and scoffing and the pure black/white thing I have going on. I will probably rewrite this much later once it has been completed.

**Swagnilla-Ice-1985: **Yes, he has not captured a Lucario. He always seems to do in other stories. Although I could be convinced to let Ash get one...

**psychodino5: **Ash will use some of his original pokemon once he gets revealed.

**Siphon 117: **Thanks! I do plan on going into some detail on why they betrayed him. I don't expect the reason to be good since I never planned for it... {sheepish smile} I included a not very good reason in this chapter. Oh, well. Not a major point in the story.

**Alpha B.A.7: **Thanks! Appreciate it!

**Guest 132**: No Unova = No Team Plasma.

**Guest: **Thanks for the longer review! I'm blushing at your praise and I appreciate the faith you have in me. I hope to live up to your expectations!

**Sweets are treats: **Thanks! The reason why it seemed like it revealed everything is because that is what Ash was remembering. Ash was telling the story removing any references to his identity. Too bad Daniel already heard the story from another source... **{spoiler}** which will be revealed later**{end spoiler}**

This chapter is filler, but it will have some important moments.

**Crude language **ahead. More than usual. Be warned.

* * *

That's it. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

* * *

High in the sky, Ashura and Latias glided through the air currents in their Lati forms. They were silent, not wanting to disturb the tranquility and peace that the silence brought them. It had been a very stressful time for them and they were eager to take the time to find peace.

As they flew together, they both noticed a nice vista overlooking the majority of Ever Grande City. They quickly flew to that location and landed, sending a small plume of dust flying into the air. They both turned human and sat down, Lily in Ashura's arms as they stared at the horizon.

"How are you doing?" Lily whispered, wondering what her mate was feeling.

Ashura shrugged slightly and replied, "Pretty well to be honest. The League hasn't caught on to who I am yet and my old friends haven't confronted us. To be frank, it's the calm before the storm." He was silent for a moment before he spoke again, "To be honest, it's nice having friends again. I lived so long without them and I tried so hard to forget them, but... they'll always hold a special place in my heart."

"You haven't been this warm, this open in years." Lily said, earning an incredulous stare from her mate.

"Really? I feel the same. Was I really that much of a stone cold bastard?" he inquired.

Lily nodded, "You were extremely cold during our first months on the road, but you warmed up as we went along, especially after you became the Prince of Champions. However, you were always frigid in a way which you haven't been at all while we're here. I'm liking this Ashura more than the one I met all those years ago.

Ashura grimly smiled and agreed. His mind flash backed to that day.

* * *

_Flashback_

_ Why, why, why. Ash desperately thought as his Pidgeot flew through the air heading to Altomare. He was doing everything he could remember to help save Pikachu who was dying right in front of him. He quickly tore off a piece of his prison garments and tied it around the mouse's worst injury; the deep knife would in his side that punctured a lung. However, all he was doing was delaying Pikachu's untimely end. He needed medical attention now._

_ As Ash worked frantically to save his buddy, his mind turned to the last three days he had. Why was he framed? Where were the rest of his friends? Why did his friends turn against him? Hadn't he treated them with respect, with friendship, with a casual form of love? After everything he did for them, including saving their lives, they throw him in a cell and laugh at his misfortune. How dare they!_

_ He was thankful that he managed to save some of his friends and... him. Ash then refused to think about him, too shocked at what had happened just hours ago. What mattered was getting to Altomare, to the one place he could be safe, to Latias in time to save Pikachu._

_ Pidgeot gave a cry, telling Ash that Altomare was in sight. Ash sighed in relief. They were close to the place that would cure Pikachu. All they needed was for the yellow mouse to just hang on._

_ Back on the island, Latias was depressed yet again as she patrolled the island. It had been over two years since her brothers death. It was hard for her to live really. Latios was dead, Lorenzo had been sickly lately and Ash... was not there for her._

_ Latias didn't understand her thoughts over the raven haired teenager. On one hand, he was a dense boy off on the chase for a dream she didn't understand. On the other hand, he brought happiness to her that no one had ever done. He was kind and was fun to be around. Latias, despite her duties to the island, couldn't help but feel that she wanted to go with him on his journey to help him accomplish his dream, something she had never considered before. What was with her?_

_ A cry of a Pidgeot brought her out of her recollections. She turned to see the giant bird flying rapidly towards the island, carrying a familiar raven haired boy..._

_ Latias' breath hitched as she saw him. It was Ash! He finally returned! She couldn't help but let happiness rush through you as she prepared to intercept the bird. She wasn't lonely anymore._

_ As she approached Ash, her eyes began to see the blood. Horrified, she quickly flew to the Pidgeot and saw him trying to save Pikachu from death._

_ Resolve filled her as she uncloaked. She would not let another person die. As she became visible, Ash turned towards her and his face lit up in happiness and relief._

_ "Latias!"_

_ End Flashback_.

* * *

"Yeah, I suppose I was really cold once the shock of everything faded away," Ashura muttered. He tightened his hold around Lily and said, "I like the new me better too."

Lily smiled and lightly kissed him on his cheek. "Glad we agree." The two were silent for another moment. "We probably should get back,"

Ashura nodded, "We should. It has been some time. They're probably getting worried."

He stood up and help Lily get to her feet. The two then changed into their Lati forms and quickly returned to a small distance away from the camp site. They then changed back and began walking to the camp.

On the way back, they encountered Daniel who was sitting on a rock, watching Gallade and Rotom train. As they approached, he looked up and gave the pair a tired grin.

"Long night?" Daniel asked.

Ashura nodded. "Yes. It was most enjoyable."

"I'm glad. The Prince of Champions should always enjoy his evenings." Daniel stated.

Ashura froze, mind going black. His pokemon tensed and turned towards Daniel who was watching them with a slightly apprehensive eye. Lily grabbed Ashura's arm to prevent him from doing something reckless.

"How do you know that?" Ashura said coldly, eyes tinted with his aura. Daniel slowly got to his feet and faced the Prince of Champions.

"You told my brother that exact tale during your mentorship. Despite the censorship you did, it was pretty easy to make the connections." Daniel said, preparing to run if needed. He knew he wouldn't get far.

Ashura stood their for a second, glaring at Daniel. Then, his mind realized the truth.

"Wait... You're Alexander's brother? The midget he's always talking about? The one who tripped over a nail?" Ashura said slowly, mouth forming a grin.

Daniel blinked and replied, "He told you that story? God damn him."

Ashura laughed and went to shake Daniel's hand. "I'm sorry. I never made the connection between the two of you. Now that I know, I can easily see the resemblance."

Daniel slightly blushed as he replied, "It's kinda hard to see when you don't know. How's he doing? He never writes anymore,"

"He's doing very well. He's on a mission right now for Artican Industries and is currently loving it." Ashura said, motioning his pokemon to resume what they had been doing.

"Well, that's really good for him. Did he say when he was going to visit?" Daniel asked.

Ashura shrugged, "Last time I heard, he was going to visit the five regions while escorting the CEO of Artican Industries. He wants to see if he can expand operations into the area."

Daniel smirked, "That's not really good for him. I bet he threw a fit when he got assigned baby sitting duty."

"You know him all too well." Ashura said. A couple seconds later, Daniel commented, "You know, I'd never thought I'd meet the Prince of Champions himself, here of all places. You have to know that the Five Regions are not worthy of licking the dirt of your feet. Why are you here?"

"Personal" Ashura muttered, not wanting to answer the question. Daniel nodded and asked, "You mind if we have a quick one on one battle? I want to be able to say that I fought the Prince of Champions."

Ashura smiled and replied, "Sure. Rotom, you're up!" Rotom flashed a grin and quickly flew over to Ashura and got himself ready for battle.

Daniel groaned, "Of course you'd have to use your starter. Arceus damn it."

Ashura laughed, "You know, Rotom is actually third in power on my team. Gallade and one other have him beat strength wise. You're luckier than Max."

Daniel blinked, "Oh... I feel bad for Max now." He grabbed a poke ball and threw it, revealing a Forretress. It spun in a circle before floating downwards, ready to battle Rotom.

"You get the first move!" Ashura yelled, wanting to give Daniel a chance to win, however small it may be.

Daniel nodded and yelled, "Start off with Autotomize!" Forretress glowed silvery wide in response, indicating the noticeable raise in speed.

Ashura inwardly smiled in satisfaction. Good choice. Daniel knew Rotom was faster than Forretress so he attempted to even the speed gap. With Forrestress' higher Defense and matched speed, he would have been in an advantageous position... if he was fighting someone on his own level.

"Double Team" Ashura whispered. Quieter speech made your moves more effective as your opponents couldn't hear you. Rotom obliged by forming multiple copies of himself, hiding himself from view.

Daniel frowned in dismay. Ashura with his move choice just hampered his stat increase. It didn't matter how much defense and speed you had if you couldn't hit your opponent. He needed to fix that.

"Spin and use Mirror Shot!"

Forretress started spinning rapidly and firing blue/silver balls of energy at the multiple copies of Rotom. Ashura nodded in satisfaction yet again. Not the best way of dealing with Rotom's double team, but good enough.

"**Charge** Beam" Ashura said. Every Rotom copy opened their mouths and fired beams of lighting at the immobile spinning Forretress. Most passed right through the Bagworm Pokemon, however, the real one scored a direct hit on the spinning Forretress, sending it crashing down to the ground.

Daniel's eyes widened as Forretress hit the ground. That was incredibly damaging to Forretress and the battle hadn't gone on for that long. Was Ashura that powerful? Of course he was, he was the Prince of Champions for Arceus' sake! As he opened his mouth to say another command, he noticed Rotom sparking for some reason. Why was...

Panic rushed through his body as he realized what had just happened. This was not good...

Ashura smiled savagely "Shock Wave"

Rotom grinned widely and fired the un-blockable super-Charged Shock Wave at Forretress. If that hit, the battle was over. Daniel only had one chance to salvage the situation. Good thing he had prepared for something like this.

"Forretress, Payback!" Daniel yelled, praying to Arceus that Forretress had enough energy.

Forretress rose off the ground and charged Rotom, glowing with a purple aura. Ashura raised an eyebrow at Daniel's tactics. Interesting...

As the Shock Wave approached Forretress, the Bagworm Pokemon shifted his body slightly as the powerful electricity hit it. Instead of frying Forretress, it deflected off its steel shell sending it spiraling into the sky. Forretress charged at the slightly surprised Rotom, unimpeded by any defenses of any kind.

Ashura took his battling up a notch. "Turn intangible" he ordered. Right before Forretress collided with Rotom, the Plasma Pokemon turned into a transparent form of itself. The Bagworm passed right through Rotom, leaving it unharmed by the physical attack. As it slowed to a stop, it dropped down seemingly paralyzed.

Daniel groaned as Forretress became paralyzed. Damn it, he'd thought that would have work. It was over. True enough, one quick Charge Beam ended the battle. As he returned his pokemon and promised it a good rest, Ashura walked up to him with Rotom at his side, both grinning.

"Good job. That was a good battle." Ashura said as they shook hands at a job well done.

Daniel shrugged. "I still lost though. In record time I might add"

Ashura shook his head. "No, what you did just now was impressive. You would have expertly salvaged the situation if there wasn't a massive skill gap between us. The use of Autotomize to even the speed gap, the clever use of Mirror Shot to try and hit Rotom's Double Team, and then the surprising capability of Forretress to deflect electric attacks. Tell me, how did you manage that?"

Daniel smiled a little bit at the praise and replied, "Well, Forretress is surrounded by a steel shell with a bunch of angles and crevices. The different faces are too small to deflect physical attacks, but I found out that because the area hit by an electrical attack is so small, they're ideal for deflecting electrical attacks. That is one of the main reasons why I chose Forretress to fight Rotom. Too bad he had to face a damn Ghost. Forretress' don't learn many special attacks."

Ashura grinned as they approached Lily and Gallade who both watched the battle, "No they don't. It was an unfortunate handicap in an already unbalanced battle. However, you performed admirably."

Daniel blushed a bit at the praise and asked, "I'm curious. What did you do to beat me?"

Ashura replied, "A good trainer never reveals..."

"Oh it was easy! First, Ashura used Charge Beam as not only an attack, but as a cover for the real attack Charge, which set him up to fire a super-powered Shock Wave. The lightning tri-fecta, he calls it!" Lily gushed, completely ruining all of Ashura's chances of his tactics remaining hidden.

Daniel gasped, "That's so cool! Considering Rotom's power level, that combo really does bring down opponents with one hit!" He paused for a second. "What about the end? What went on there?"

"As I said," Ashura began, glaring at Lily, "A good trainer never reveals..."

"As Forretress charged in, Rotom had no time to dodge or attack again due to your speed increase. So, using a special ability Ashura has trained his ghost pokemon in, Rotom turned intangible rendering all physical attacks void regardless of type. As Forretress charge through, Rotom made his plasma molecules slightly corporal causing Forretress to become paralyzed. A simple Charge Beam ended the match." Gallade said, smirking at Ashura's even more impressive glare.

"Wow, you really have developed some awesome strategies." Daniel said, impressed with the Prince of Champion's accomplishment. "When did you first design this combo?"

Ashura turned to face Daniel and sighed, deciding that it wouldn't hurt considering his strategy was already out. "I first used it during my fight against Shepard. It won me the battle"

Daniel stiffened in shock as he stared at Ashura, disbelief shining in his eyes. "I was just taken out by the same strategy used to take down Shepard, previous second in line of the Royal Line, current third in line after your ascension and your new colleague?"

Ashura smiled and nodded.

Daniel was silent for several seconds before whispering, "My life is so weird..."

Rotom laughed and replied, _"Don't worry, we all have our weird moments. Besides, during the fight against Shepard, it was the last round, no pokemon for either trainer remaining, and we we were out of options. I was cornered by Shepard's Tyranitar, nasty big dinosaur, and Ashura in desperation enunciated the Charge in Charge Beam too much. I fired my Charge Beam and, quite accidentally, began Charging because his over emphasis on the word Charge caused me to launch both attacks."_

_ "I got lucky with the Charge Beam and Tyranitar was stunned for a moment after getting a hit to the face. He was stunned long enough for Ashura to frantically order Discharge. I fired the attack and fried the whole field due to the unknown Charge I had used. Tyranitar went down, surprising everyone, and Ashura won the match. We later found out that I had launched the Charge and we both completely agreed that I would have lost the match for Ashura if I had not accidentally fired Charge before Discharge,"_

Daniel gaped at the scene, "You beat Shepard because of dumb luck and circumstance."

Ashura nodded, "Yes. Not my brightest moment, but it goes to show battles can come down to luck and circumstance rather than skill or power. Remember that."

A sudden yell alerted the two of a disturbance from the camp. All of them stopped dead and stared at the campsite, wondering what was going on. Unnoticed, Ashura's eyes glowed blue before his face contorted into anger.

"Let's go. We've got a pest problem back at camp." he growled as he ran back to camp, the others in close pursuit.

* * *

_Five minutes earlier_

Max smiled as he and Artemis played cards together, their pokemon playing in the clearing. He had stopped training for the day and Artemis had forcibly dragged him to the table and started dealing cards before he could even protest. Before too long, he had stopped complaining and rapidly started to enjoy the leisure pass time. It was calm, it was peaceful, it was exciting, it was awesome!

Max groaned as he lost again, a snickering Artemis collecting the chips on the table.

"I lost again." he mumbled as Artemis started dealing again.

Artemis smirked and replied, "Don't worry, you'll get better. My old man used to crush me before my mother had enough and stepped in. I've been winning ever since." She turned her head to deal the cards, the sun shining on her lustrous silver hair.

Max's heart sped up a bit as he stared at her. She was cute, no, she was stunning. Her hair was amazing, her clothes fit her body well, the faint blush on her cheeks made Artemis all the more beautiful. All he wanted to do was to go up, hug her and never let her go.

Max shook his head, wondering where the hell those thoughts came from. He never had that reaction to anyone before. What was it? After a quick second, he forced it out of his mind. He could think about it later.

"Ready to go again?" Artemis sweetly asked, shuffling the cards.

Max chuckled and replied, "Why not? I need to win at least one game today,"

Before they could start their game, a loud screaming voice yelled out "MAX MAPLE!"

The two whirled around to see Misty, Dawn and May standing at the edge of the clearing, all three of their faces fiery red in anger. Max and Artemis paled at the sight. They did not want to deal with this.

"Max, what the hell do you think you're doing?" May said sharply and coldly. Max shifted in his seat, but was unaffected by her posturing.

"Playing cards with a good friend while waiting for my mentor to return," Max stated. He didn't notice Artemis' blush at being called a good friend.

"You should not being hanging around these people, Max. They're a bad influence." Dawn said, backing May up.

Max snorted. "Oh, like you were to Ash?"

"ASH BETRAYED US!" Misty yelled, annoyed at May's brat brother.

Artemis stood up and glared at the three girls. "Who is Ash and how did he betray you?"

"Ash was a very cruel man who deserved everything he got to him!" Misty replied.

Max stood up as well, angered. He did not want his old friends name defiled. "Ash was the nicest, most kind person you could ever meet! He loved Pokemon and wouldn't dream of betraying us! We betrayed him at his lowest moment! I didn't have a choice! I couldn't help him! Why did you choose to put him on death row? Didn't get into his pants? Didn't get his money?"

"Why you..." Dawn growled, their faces turning even redder.

Max's mouth fell open. Was that the reason? "You... you betray Ash, wrote him off to die because you couldn't get into his pants? Because you couldn't get his money? How despicable could you be! All you care about is sex and money!"

"Now listen here Max..." May growled, too angry to attempt denying the accusation. "That man is trouble. Our parents gave me the responsibility to keep you safe and I will make sure you are."

"Ashura is the best thing that has happened to me." Max stated slowly as ice flooded his veins. "He has put me on the path to greatness. I've never felt more alive and happy than what I have the past couple days." He didn't notice he had gotten closer to Artemis and he had her hand in his. "I will never give any of this up. I'm not going home. I'm going to take my first step into a larger world."

"Step away from that girl!" May ordered.

"She's not a girl! She's way more than that!" Max yelled as he squeezed Artemis' hand harder. She returned in kind.

Dawn opened to retaliate, but a large crashing sound alerted the crowd. They all spun to see Ashura, Lily, Daniel and their respective pokemon emerge from the forest. Ashura looked murderous at the three girl's disruption.

"Why are you here? Be gone!" Ashura yelled, his furious voice sending tremors down everyone's spines.

"I won't let you corrupt my brother like Ash almost did!" May yelled as she pulled out a poke ball.

"I'm not a corruption; I'm a blessing. You fools are too ignorant to see it." Ashura icily said as he pulled Lily towards himself.

"You girls need to back down now," Daniel urged, trying to avoid a blood bath. "You have no idea who you're dealing with."

"I know exactly who we're dealing with," Misty said hauntingly. "A slut and his pet bitch."

A icy chill flew through the air, causing every one around the two to shiver. Ashura was panting hard, eyes blaring outward in an attempt to stop himself from pasting the three into bloody smears. Lily wasn't even trying to hold her anger in. She wrenched Ashura's arm off her, walked up and socked Mistry in the face with a right hook.

As Misty went down unconscious, pandemonium broke loose. Gallade jumped in front of Ash and tried to calm him down. Daniel ran up to Lily to calm her down. Rotom flew high in the sky, on the lookout to see if any more trouble came their way. May and Dawn hastily retreated with Misty's limp body in tow. Max and Artemis stared at the girl's retreating forms and recollected over their encounter.

Another crackle alerted the group to another person's presence. They all turned around, murder on their faces to see Brock emerge out of the forest with food ingredients in tow. He froze at seeing everyone's expressions. After several seconds he asked, "Am I too late with the food?"

Everyone sighed and began to calm down from the recent incident. After filling Brock in over what transpired, every one sat down to talk about what transpired.

"How more arrogant could they be!" Daniel said, still slightly unable to believe in what he just saw.

Artemis shrugged, "Who knows? Probably a lot worse."

"Something needs to be done about them." Max said, leaning in to Artemis. "I've had it with their controlling and cruel ways. First the whole situation with Ash, now this... They've gone to far."

"I agree," Ashura said, bringing the group's attention on him. "They are wastes of human life and deserve what's going to come to them,"

"What are we going to do?" Max asked, already thinking of what he could do to make their life miserable.

"They had a hand in ruining the life of one. Their own livelihood is adequate payment. Public humiliation, stripped of what they do best, that is true justice."

"How are you going to do that?" Brock asked.

Ashura smiled, a dark cruel smile that no one wanted to see again. "It is clearly quite simple. Beat them at their own game and humiliate them in public. Their attitudes will set the whole thing up."

"How do we do that?" Daniel asked.

Ashura didn't answer, merely gestured for Lily to speak herself. Lily stared at everyone with steel hard amber eyes, ready to do what was required.

"It's easy." Lily said. " I'm going to enter the Pokemon Contest."

* * *

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed that chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

That's right. A Pokemon as a coordinator in a contest. Awesome.

Which of Ash's current Pokemon do you want Lily to use? List is in chapter 3. She cannot use Gallade, Rotom, herself, or the mystery pokemon.

I'll be working on _Blessed or_ _Lord _next. Please review and respond!

Thanks for reading!

Primordial Soul


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: **Hey, it's Primordial Soul with the ninth chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

FINALLY! I GOT THIS DONE! Thank you guys for all the support and submissions I have received. They really helped get this chapter done. I am never writing a contest again. The winner of the Altomare Ace Chapter Contest is **Crystal water32**. Please say thank you to him/her for helping me get this chapter done.

Here we are. Lily kicks ass and the Contest runs its course. This chapter will be terse and to the point as you guys know how much trouble writing this chapter was and how much I wanted this chapter done. This is also Lily-centric. We will be returning to all the other characters next chapter.

* * *

**Important: **People have begun asking me and I'm been hesitant to announce this since I'm a little less than halfway done with this story and that I've had problems writing this story, but I'll go ahead and ask.

Do you guys eventually want a prequel to this story? I would probably make it the same length as this. It would go from Ash's escape from prison to his coronation as Prince of Champions. You would see him grow and develop as a trainer and with his relationship with Latias. It would have epic battles as he takes on the Royal Line and learns from his own mentor. I'm game for it, but I wouldn't start working on it until this story is finished at the minimum, especially since I can't even get my chapters done.

* * *

**Review Responses:**

**DP Master 01: **Yep, it isn't! Planned this contest since the very beginning of the story!

**Psychochiken: **Thanks!

**Deathstryke666: **Don't worry, they will get their due. Just not yet.

**Alpha B.A.7: **Thanks! I've decided to start revealing everything slowly for a massive reveal chapter shortly before the tournament. Goodshow and Tobias will have an appearance in this chapter.

**Red: **Thanks!

**Organ Man: **I didn't put too much thought into their reasons so I had to make something up quickly on the fly. It's kinda pathetic, I know, but it was the best I could come up with in two minutes. The reasons will not come up again so they aren't important.

**HP-DG-SB-HA-RR-KB-NT-TD-LL-AJ: **I'm glad that you are still reading this story despite the pairing and Pikachu = Rotom.

**Animefan4eva5: **Not for a little bit. Before the tournament, that's for sure. The story will end with a scene after the end of the tournament.

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

I don't own anything!

* * *

Ashura sat in the shade of a grove of trees, mind furiously thinking of what was going to transpire. The Pokemon Contest was about to start and his mate, _his _Lily, was about to participate in it. He believed that she was as ready as she could be, but he could only worry about the results of this action.

Goodshow wasn't an idiot. When he saw what was going to happen, it was only a matter of time before he caught on to who he was. When he did, Ashura knew he would have to play the political game he hated so much. Ashura at least took some comfort that Goodshow would have no clue on what title he possessed in the Outside World.

Ashura sighed as he took a deep breathe, forcing his worries out of his mind. Lily knew what she was doing and Ashura trusted her to do the right thing.

Speak of his mate, she walked up to him, dressed the same as she always was, worry present in those beautiful amber eyes. Ashura smiled at her present and embraced her in a hug.

"You ready, love?" Ashura asked, his breath trailing down her cheek as he handed her three poke balls.

Lily nodded confidently as she accepted the pokemon Ashura gave her. "Of course I am." She grabbed her mate's head and forced their lips together in a passionate kiss. They stood there for a minute, basking in the pleasure the kiss brought them before they parted. Ashura smirked and led Lily towards the contest hall.

"You're going to be late if we keep these pleasurable activities up. You have some annoying girls to beat." Ashura said, stopping in front of the Contest building. "I'll be cheering you on with Gallade, Rotom, Daniel, Artemis, Max and Brock."

"Thanks." Lily murmured, her nerves suddenly attacking her resolve. Would she be able to do this? She quickly crushed her doubts and entered the contest building, leaving Ashura to head to the stands.

Minutes later, the contestants were lined up in the locker room, ready to start the appeal round. Lily was standing alone, unwilling to talk to anyone who would just waster her time. She rapidly came up with plans for the pokemon Ashura loaned her as she knew what they were right when she touched their poke balls.

Her competition wouldn't know what hit them.

May and Dawn were each called before her, each girl giving Lily condescending looks and verbal insults as they passed. Lily ignored them, knowing that they were insignificant when compared to her, her mate and the world. Both girls went through their performances, both nothing special. Dawn created a whirlpool that she evaporated into a fine mist while May created some kind of firework with a combination of Shadow Ball and Ice Beam.

"Lily Knight!" Lily's heart fluttered as she heard her human name. Having Ashura's surname made her proud, satisfied that she was his mate, his wife, his love, his everything. To think that a prodigal Aura user, that the Prince of Champions himself chose her as his partner for eternity made her nearly explode with happiness.

She would prove that she was worthy today.

She stepped onto the arena, face to face with a full audience of people. Lily felt her body tense, unaccustomed to the stares of thousands watching her. How could Ashura deal with crowds a hundred times this size? It didn't matter, she thought. She had a contest to win.

Lily selected a poke ball and tossed it into the air, revealing an elegant and graceful Dragonair that Ashura had captured because of her beauty and hidden skill.

"Dragonair, rapid fire Dragon Pulse," Lily commanded, falling into the routine that Ashura had for his battles.

Complying, the serpentine dragon fired three turquoise spheres towards the room's ceiling. The three attacks became attracted towards each other and stopped moving, the attraction between each Dragon Pulse overpowering their momentum.

"Supersonic"

Dragonair opened its mouth and fired sonic rings towards the ceiling. The attack collided with the three Dragon Pulses, causing the spheres to disperse to form giant blue rings. The crowed oohed and aahed as Dragonair seized the initiative and lifted itself off the ground and flew through the rings with ease and grace.

"Aqua Tail"

Dragonair formed a stream of water which spiraled down its tail. As it flew through the rings again, the serpentine dragon gathered the dispersed Dragon Pulses with its tail, causing the water to glow cyan blue.

"Dragon Rush"

Dragonair then cloaked itself in blue energy and felt its speed increase. It rocketed towards the ceiling, the rings around its tail shimmering and glowing with grace and power. As it approached the ceiling, the move exploded from Dragonair's body, giving off a bright aurora of color.

The crowd clapped and cheered as Lily finished her performance, returning Dragonair to its poke ball. Giving a bashful smile to her audience, Lily made eye contact with her mate who nodded in approval at her performance, surrounded by the group who cheered for her success. Love welled up inside her and took a surprising amount of self control not to snog Ashura then and there.

She swiftly exited the stage with the rest of the contestants, each and everyone of them preparing for the battle round ahead of them. Lily wasn't as worried with this stage than the previous one. Ashura's pokemon knew battle.

A quick and muted sound alerted Lily to the decided match ups. Once the disguised pokemon got a good look at them, she rose an eyebrow in surprise. She was facing Dawn in the first battle round. This will be fun.

"You won't win. I've been doing this far longer than you" Dawn taunted as she walked up to Lily.

Lily gave her an apathetic stare. "I don't need to win. All I need to do is beat you and May which won't be too hard."

Dawn's face reddened in anger, but she refrained from speaking as she marched out the door, Lily trailing behind her.

They found themselves on opposite sides in the battlefield, Dawn fired with anger, Lily calm with serenity. Lily wasn't the sheltered little Latias that crushed on Ash when she first met him. No, she was much more mature than that. This little kid didn't scare her.

"Togekiss, Mamoswine, go!" Dawn yelled, releasing her pokemon.

"Togetic, Ninjask, release" Lily said, releasing the pokemon Ashura lent her.

Dawn wasted no time in beginning the battle. "Togekiss, start off with Aura Sphere! Mamoswine, use Ice Shard!"

The Aura Sphere was launched at the same time as the Ice Shard and were aimed at each other. When they collided, the ice covered the Aura Sphere, giving it an even shinier appearance as it flew towards Lily's pokemon.. Lily paid no attention as her points fell a little. She knew that when they started attacking each other, Ashura's pokemon would crush these weaklings. Besides, that Aura Sphere was terrible. Ashura must be face palming at how bad that Aura Sphere was.

"Togetic, Mirror Move. Ninjask, Bug Buzz"

Togetic cloaked itself in a beautiful veil of energy and stood its ground in front of the sphere. Meanwhile, Ninjask flew in front of the sphere and fired red sound waves at the sphere which caused the ice to shatter. The sphere then bounced off Togetic and flew towards Mamoswine. Dawn's points fell further than what Lily's had, putting the disguised pokemon in the lead.

Lily then seized the initiative, "Ninjask, X Scissor. Togetic, Extrasensory"

Ninjask complied, crossing its claws and flew straight towards Togekiss. Togetic's eyes flashed before it brought its hands together and fired a golden multicolored beam right at the cicada. The crossed claws began shining brightly with the move, giving it the same color as the beam. Dawn's points dropped even further, now only two thirds of her original total.

"Mamoswine, Takedown behind Togekiss. Then use Sky Attack."

Mamoswine, using Takedown, launches Togekiss at Ninjask. Togekiss then cloaks itself in a bluish white hue which shapes itself into an arrow. They collide, causing Togetic to fall to the ground while Ninjask was unaffected by the hit, evidence of the training the cicada had gone through under the Prince of Champions. Dawn's points drop even further, causing the blunette to begin feeling anxiety. She had to beat this punk!

"Togekiss, hang on!" Dawn yelled

"Ninjask, Giga Drain on Mamoswine, Togetic, Solar Beam on Ninjask"

Ninjask charged towards Mamoswine, shining a brilliant green. Gathering light through its wings, Togetic's move mades Ninjask's aura trail change from its normal green color to a light yellow green, making the cicada look stunning. It circles Mamoswine, bathing it in its color and sapping its energy away.

"Togekiss Safeguard!" Dawn yelled.

Dawn's pokemon stretched its large wings and made an aqua colored pulse that was sent throughout the room. It smacked Ninjask away, but Giga Drain had done its job. Lily was now even further into the lead.

"Togetic, Present. Ninjask, Aerial Ace"

Togetic formed a rainbow colored ball between its small hand and gingerly launched it. Ninjask then sped towards it and hit it with a claw, giving the Present extra power. The attack hits Togekiss, knocking the pokemon next to Mamoswine.

"Mamoswine use Hidden Power! Togekiss, Air Slash!" Dawn ordered in desperation.

Mamoswine glowed a soft green color and launched multiple orbs sporting the same color. With a swipe of its wings, Togekiss launched blueish-white slashes of wind. Both attacks went straight for Ninjask.

Lily smirked in victory, "Mirror move, Togetic"

Togetic jumped in front of Ninjask and activated the move, shining brightly once again. The moves were launched back, knocking out both Mamoswine and Togekiss.

The judges put x's on the screens in front of the podium, indicating that Dawn is out of the contest. The blunette stared in shock as her pokemon laid defeated in front of her while Lily simply recalled her pokemon and left. Despite Dawn's attitude and actions towards her love, Lily was finished with the blunette. She was insignificant and not worth their time.

Time passed, battles passed and before long, Lily was in the finals. Her competition had been strangely dissatisfying as nobody had the strength to stop a pokemon belonging to the Prince of Champions, not that they knew she was using his pokemon. What many people would find surprising was that Lily didn't want to win. All she wanted to do was beat Dawn and May at their own game. Only the latter remained.

May narrowed her eyes at the coordinator who crushed the competition without barely suffering a scratch. Something was off about this Lily, this bitch. But what?

"You may have been lucky before, but your luck ends now" May said, raising two poke balls.

Lily shook her head and responded, "Who needs luck when you have certainty? You will lose today."

"We'll see" May snarled, throwing both poke balls into the air to reveal Blaziken and Beautifly ready to fight.

Lily did not respond, merely throwing out Ninjask and Togetic to crush this upstart.

Up in the stands, Max bit his lip, unsure of who to cheer for. Lily and Ashura had done so much for him, but May was his sister... Who was he supposed to support?

He thankfully didn't have to chose when Ashura turned and smiled at him, "You don't need to worry, Max. Lily doesn't need support. Go cheer for your sister."

"You would have me root against your girlfriend?" Max asked.

Ashura laughed, "Wife actually. We married young. And yes. Lily would actually be affronted if you supported her over your own flesh and blood."

Max hesitated before nodding seconds later. Ashura made sense. Max turned his head back towards the field to see the battle begin.

"Ninjask, Bug Buzz. Togetic, Extrasensory"

The bug began vibrating its wings really fast, giving off red sound waves. Togetic then fired the golden beam of Extrasensory at the same time than Ninjask fired Bug Buzz. The moves merged, causing the red sound waves to turn into a gold multicolor. As the waves hit May's team, they clutched their heads in pain since the move now contained psychic energy. May's points began dropping down slowly.

"Beautifly, hang onto Blaziken's back and use silver wind! Blaziken, acrobatics on both of them."

Recovering, Beautifly grabbed onto Blaziken and flapped its wings, shimmering dust scattering behind it. Blaziken then leapt forward, running around the field so fast, it left afterimages of itself and Beautifly. The dust gives the illusion of Blaziken having a shining cape with the afterimages shining with every pass. Lily suffered a massive loss in points, only having two thirds of her points now.

"Togetic, Solar beam, Ninjask, X Scissor" Lily growled, already hating contests. If this was a battle, she would have won by now. Ashura's pokemon were built for battles, trained for them. They didn't need to be pretty and that was why they were not dominating the contest battles.

Togetic fired the yellow-green beam upwards with Ninjask right above it. The cicada then crossed its claws and split the beam into four separate beams which formed a square formation around Togetic. Blaziken proceeded to smash into one of the smaller beams as it couldn't stop its momentum. May suffered an even bigger drop in points than what Lily did due to the massive damage Blaziken suffered.

"Bust the beam and use Overheat, Blaziken! Beautifly, spin and use Signal Beam!"

Blaziken, struggling to its feet began glowing a fiery red and fired a sphere of intense heat from its beak. Beautifly then spun to face the orb and fired a green and pink beam, the two moves combining to create a rainbow colored attack. The combined attack collides with the solar beam and completely fails to stop the grass type attack, forcing May's pokemon to dodge. May's points drop even further while Lily's points dropped a bit as well.

"Mirror move, Togetic. Ninjask, X Scissor"

Ninjask crossed its blades and fired the bug type attack at its teammate. Togetic, in response, shrouded in that beautiful energy cloak again, bouncing the move away to the ceiling where it broke into a thousand pieces. The shards of the move fell and surrounded Togetic and Ninjask in a diamond like dust, displaying their innate beauty. May's points fell even further, now just a tiny fraction of what she started out with.

"Beautifly, use Energy Ball! Blaziken, Sky Uppercut!" May panicked, seconds now on the clock.

May's pokemon, with those moves, attempted to copy the same combination that Togetic's Present and Ninjask's X Scissor did in the battle with Dawn earlier. Lily's team, recognizing the stolen combination, anticipates this attack and they both dodge gracefully out of the way.

Before Lily could call another move out, the buzzer rang out, indicating that the five minute battle had ended. Since Lily had more points than May, she was declared the winner of the contest.

Lily smiled widely at her success as she was handed her ribbon, feeling so proud and happy that she couldn't stop herself from smiling as wide as she could even if she wanted to. She had beaten those insignificant girls at their own game and the disguised Eon saw no need in pursuing additional punishment.

Ashura ran out onto the stage, gathered his mate into his arms and kissed her, holding her body with affection and reverence. She had been fabulous!

"Well done," Ashura hoarsely said as they broke the kiss, staring into each other's eyes.

Lily giggled as she rested her head on his shoulder, feeling content, safe and loved. "I couldn't have done it without you, love"

Ashura smiled and escorted her off the stage, looking over his shoulder for a brief moment. Lily didn't care though.

She was in her lover's arms. Nothing could go wrong.

* * *

_Later..._

Goodshow frowned as he watched the contest, some unidentifiable thought nagging at him. Something was off about the contest he was watching; he was missing something important. But what was it?

The object of his confusion was Mrs. Lily Knight. She had no documentation anywhere in the Five Regions, no camera sightings, no nothing. She just appeared in the arms of Ashura Knight who had frustrated the Pokemon owner since he had seen the mysterious trainer that Scott had brought to this tournament. He needed to have words with the Battle Frontier owner...

Not only Lily's background bothered Goodshow, but her posture and her battling. She was too graceful, too confident, too efficient to be normal. There was no normal embellishment, no uncertain cries of panic. She carried herself with the surety and the certainty of one who was confident of their success. Plus, she wasn't even excited to have earned the ribbon. Sure, she was happy that she won, but none of that excitement had transferred to the ribbon. Lily had entered the contest for some other reason than earning the ribbon. But what?

Goodshow fast forwarded through the remainder of the contest and watched Ashura run out onto the stage and kiss her in front of the giant crowd.

_Who are you? _Goodshow silently asked the trainer who was ruining everything.

As Ashura led his wife away, he turned to face the camera and Goodshow was struck by an epiphany.

He had seen that stare before. The boy was younger and softer of course and the eyes were a different color. But there was no mistaking that determined gaze that promised defeat for the recipient. But he was dead! … wasn't he?

The more Goodshow thought about it, the more it made sense. Altomare had been leaving the Five Regions during that time and that created a political and logistical nightmare, making it easy to fake important paperwork. Ashura's Rotom followed him around and acted like a certain other pokemon, but wasn't changing species impossible?

And the name... oh Ashura's name was too convenient, too coincidental for Goodshow to be wrong. Goodshow knew that the boy was able to use Aura. Take out the sh and you get Aura Knight. Take out the ura and you get … oh, this was ridiculous. Arceus, he even kept the same first letter of his last name!

Goodshow leaned back and smiled, making plans to deal with this little upstart.

_So you returned from the dead, Ash Ketchum? I will make you wish you were dead. Nobody messes with me. Nobody._

* * *

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed this chapter of _The Altomare Ace!_

Don't have much to say. See you later!

Primordial Soul


End file.
